*** 


University  of  California. 


/f- 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 


MATTHEW  ff.   CARPENTER 


( A  SENATOR  FROM  WISCONSIN ), 


DKI.IVKKH)    IN   TIIK 


SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  KErRESENTATIVES, 

I j .  3 , 

FORTY-SEVENTH  CONGRESS,  FIRST  SESSION, 

JANUARY  26,  1882, 


THE   PROCEEDINGS   CONNECTED   WITH   THE 
FUNERAL  OF  THE  DECEASED. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT    PRINTING    OFFICE. 

1882. 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  to  print  certain  eulogies  delivered  in  Congress  upon  the  late  Fer 
nando  Wood,  Matt.  H.  Carpenter,  and  Ambrose  E.  13urnside. 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  there  be  printed  twelve  thousand  copies 
respectively  of  the  eulogies  delivered  in  Congress  upon  the  late  Fernando 
Wood,  a  Representative  from  the  State  of  New  York;  Matt.  H.  Carpenter,  a 
Senator  from  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  and  Ambrose  E.  Burnside,  a  Senator 
from  the  State  of  Ehode  Island,  of  each  of  which  four  thousand  shall  be  for 
the  Senate  and  eight  thousand  for  the  use  of  the  House  of  Representatives ; 
and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  be,  and  he  is  hereby,  directed  to  have 
printed  portraits  of  the  three  above  named  Messrs.  Wood,  Carpenter,  and 
Burnside  to  accompany  their  respective  eulogies;  and  for  the  purpose  of 
defraying  the  expense  of  engraving  and  printing  the  said  portraits  the  sum 
of  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  or  so  much  thereof  as  may  be  necessary,  be,  and 
the  same  is  hereby,  appropriated  out  of  any  money  in  the  Treasury  not  other 
wise  appropriated. 

Approved  February  15,  1882. 
2 


ANNOUNCEMENT 

OF  THE 


DEATH  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER, 

A  SENATOR  FROM  WISCONSIN. 


IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
Tuesday,  February  24,  1881. 


The  Chaplain,  Rev.  J.  J.  BULLOCK,  D.  D.,  offered  the  following 

PRAYER : 

Almighty  God,  our  Heavenly  Father,  we  adore  Thee  as  the  King 
eternal,  immortal,  and  invisible,  in  whom  we  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being,  upon  whom  we  are  dependent  for  life  and  for  all 
its  blessings,  and  to  whom  we  are  responsible  for  all  that  we  do. 

We  thank  Thee,  O  God,  for  Thy  great  goodness  and  mercy  to 
us,  especially  for  Thy  preservation  of  us  during  the  past  night,  and 
for  the  light  and  blessings  of  this  new  day.  We  commit  ourselves 
to  Thy  guidance  and  protection.  Preserve  us  from  all  evil,  and  l)e- 
stow  upon  us  every  needed  blessing. 

Bless,  we  beseech  Thee,  our  beloved  country ;  defend  and  deliver 
us  from  the  dangers  to  which  we  are  exposed,  from  ignorance  and 
superstition,  from  infidelity  and  licentiousness.  May  we  long  be  a 
united  and  happy  people,  a  people  who  fear  God  and  love  righteous 
ness.  Bless,  we  pray  Thee,  our  rulers,  the  President,  the  Vicc- 
President,  the  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress,  and  all 
who  are  in  authority.  May  they  rule  in  the  fear  of  God  and  for 
the  good  of  the  people. 


4          LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

Most  merciful  God,  it  hath  pleased  Thee  in  Thine  inscrutable 
providence  to  remove  by  the  hand  of  death  one  of  the  members  of 
this  body  from  the  scene  of  his  labors  here;  and  now  we  pray  that 
Thou  wouldst  look  in  tender  compassion  upon  his  bereaved  family; 
comfort  and  sustain  them  in  this  hour  of  their  sore  trial,  and  wilt 
Thou  enable  those  of  us  who  remain  to  make  a  suitable  improve 
ment  of  this  solemn  dispensation  of  Thy  providence.  May  we  be 
sensibly  reminded  of  the  shortness  and  uncertainty  of  life  and  of 
the  importance  of  being  ever  prepared  for  our  departure,  for  we 
know  neither  the  day  nor  the  hour  when  we  shall  be  called  hence. 

We  commit  ourselves  and  all  that  are  dear  to  us  to  Thy  Fatherly 
care.  Be  with  us  in  all  the  trials  and  changes  of  life,  and  prepare 
us  for  the  last  sad  change  that  awaits  us  upon  earth,  and  finally  re 
ceive  us  into  Thy  Kingdom  above ;  we  ask  for  Christ  our  Redeem 
er's  sake.  Amen. 


Mr.  CAMERON,  of  Wisconsin.  I  rise,  Mr.  President,  to  an 
nounce  to  the  Senate  the  death  of  nay  late  colleague,  MATTHEW  H. 
CARPENTER.  Mr.  CARPENTER  died  at  the  residence  of  his  family, 
in  this  city,  at  twenty-five  minutes  after  nine  o'clock  this  morning. 

At  some  convenient  time  hereafter  the  Senate  will  be  asked  to 
consider  resolutions  commemorative  of  his  life  and  public  services. 
Before  offering  the  resolutions  which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  I  desire 
to  express  the  sorrow  that  I  feel  personally  at  the  death  of  my  col 
league  and  friend.  I  desire  also  to  express  in  some  slight  degree 
the  profound  sorrow  that  the  people  of  Wisconsin  will  feel  at  the 
death  of  their  most  gifted  and  distinguished  representative. 

I  offer,  sir,  the  following  resolutions: 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  has  heard  with  profound  sorrow  of  the  death  of 
Hon.  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER,  late  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Wisconsin. 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  five  Senators  be  appointed  by  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent  to  take  order  for  superintending  the  funeral  of  Mr.  CARPENTER  ;  and 


PROCEEDINGS  IN  THE  SENATE.  5 

that  as  a  mark  of  respect  entertained  by  the  Senate  for  his  memory,  his  re- 
inains  be  removed  from  Washington  to  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin,  in  charge,  of 
the  Sergeant-at-Arms  and  attended  by  said  committee,  who  shall  have  full 
power  to  carry  this  resolution  into  effect. 

Rewired,  That  tho  Secretary  of  the  Senate  communicate  tho  foregoing  reso 
lutions  to  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Rewired,  That,  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  CAH- 
PEXTKR,  the  Senate  do  now  adjourn. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  Mr.  President,  I  am  sure  that  every  mem 
ber  of  the  Senate  has  received  with  deep  sensibility  the  notice  that 
is  given  to  us  of  the  death  of  Mr.  CARPENTER,  and  that  each  one 
shares  very  deeply  and  very  largely  in  the  sentiment  of  sorrow  ex 
pressed  by  his  colleague.  I  therefore  second  the  resolutions. 

The  Vice- President  appointed  as  the  committee  on  the  part  of 
the  Senate  under  the  resolution  of  the  24th  instant,  for  superin 
tending  the  funeral  of  the  late  Senator  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER, 
Mr.  Cameron,  of  Wisconsin,  Mr.  Conkling,  Mr.  Logan,  Mr.  Pen- 
dleton,  and  Mr.  Cockrell. 

The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously;  and  (at  eleven 
o'clock  and  sixteen  minutes  a.  m.)  the  Senate  adjourned. 


ADDRESSES 

ON   TIIK 

DEATH  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER, 

A  SENATOR  FROM  WISCONSIN. 


DELIVERED  IN  THE  SENATE, 
Wednesday,  January  25, 


Mr.  CAMERON,  of  Wisconsin.  Mr.  President,  pursuant  to 
notice  heretofore  given  by  me,  I  offer  the  resolutions  which  I  send 
to  the  Secretary's  desk.  I  ask  that  they  be  read  and  considered 
at  this  time. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tcmpore.     The  resolutions  will  be  read. 

The  Acting  Secretary  read  as  follows: 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  has  heard  with  profound  sorrow  of  the  death  of 
Hon.  MATTHEW  H.  CAIIPKNTEK,  late  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Wisconsin, 
and  extends  to  his  aBlicted  family  sincere  sympathy  and  condolence  in  their 
bereavement. 

Resolved,  That,  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  CAK- 
I'KSJTEU,  the  regular  business  of  the  Senate  be  now  suspended  in  order  that 
his  former  associates  in  this  body  may  pay  fitting  tribute  to  bis  memory. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  bo  directed  to  transmit  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased,  and  also  to  the  Governor  of  Wisconsin,  a  certified 
copy  of  these  resolutions,  with  a  statement  of  the  action  of  the  Senate 
thereon. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  communicate  these  resolutions 
to  the  House  of  Representative*. 

Resolved,  That,  as  a  further  testimonial  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the 
deceased  Senator,  the  Senate  do  now  adjourn. 

The  PRESIDING  OFFICER  (Mr.  Saulsbury  in  the  chair). 
The  resolutions  are  before  the  Senate. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 


Address  of  Mr.  CAMERON,  of  Wisconsin. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  To-day  Wisconsin  asks  the  Senate  to  lay  aside 
its  Calendar  and  unite  with  her  in  paying  a  last  sad  tribute  of  re 
spect  to  the  memory  of  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

Mr.  CARPENTER,  by  his  character  and  public  services,  had  en 
deared  himself  to  the  people  of  Wisconsin.  When  he  died  every 
citizen  of  the  State  felt  that  he  had  suffered  a  personal  bereave 
ment.  This  feeling  found  expression  in  a  great  popular  demon 
stration  at  his  funeral,  in  resolutions  adopted  by  the  legislature,  in 
meetings  of  the  bar,  and  in  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  press. 

My  remarks  upon  the  resolutions  now  under  consideration  will 
be  mainly  biographic. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  was  born  at  Moretown,  Washington  County, 
Vermont,  on  the  22d  day  of  December,  1824,  and  died  in  the  city 
of  Washington  on  the  24th  day  of  February,  1881. 

He  was  christened  by  his  parents  "Decatur  Merritt  Hammond," 
and  was  commonly  called  "Merritt"  Carpenter  until  subsequent  to 
his  removal  to  Wisconsin.  In  1851,  after  he  had  argued  a  cause 
in  court  with  extraordinary  learning  and  ability,  one  of  his  associ 
ates  at  the  bar  enthusiastically  declared  that  the  argument  was 
worthy  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  and  that  its  author  ought  no  longer 
to  be  called  "  Merritt "  Carpenter,  but  should  be  named  "  Matthew 
Hale  "  Carpenter.  This  declaration  struck  the  imagination  of  the 
lawyers  present,  and  thereafter  they  called  their  eloquent  young 
associate  "  Matthew  Hale."  So  generally  was  the  name  of  "Mat 
thew  Hale "  applied  to  him  that  he  was  actually  constrained  to 
adopt  it,  and  thus  "Decatur  Merritt  Hammond"  Carpenter,  of 
Vermont,  became  "Matthew  Hale"  Carpenter,  of  Wisconsin. 

Fifty  years  ago  Paul  Dillingham,  now  one  of  the  venerable  ex- 
governors  of  Vermont,  was  an  influential  citizen  and  a  leading 


ADDRESS  OF  Mlt.  CAMERON,  Of  WISCONSIN.  9 

lawyer  of  that  State.  He  resided  at  Waterbury,  Washington 
County,  and  was  an  acquaintance  and  frk>nd  of  the  Carpenter 
family.  Mr.  Dillingham  saw  young  MERRITT  CARPENTER  when 
he  was  about  three  years  of  age,  and  was  greatly  attracted  by  the 
extraordinary  physical  beauty  and  the  precocious  mental  develop 
ment  of  the  boy.  It  may  be  that  the  astute  lawyer  discovered  in 
the  boy  of  three  years  of  age  the  germ  of  the  great  orator  and  jurist 
that  he  subsequently  became.  However  this  may  be,  Mr.  Dilling 
ham  said  to  Mrs.  Carpenter :  "  Send  your  son  to  me  when  he  is 
fourteen  years  of  age  and  I  will  make  a  lawyer  of  him." 

When  Merritt  was  five  years  of  age  he  began  attending  the  dis 
trict  school  in  his  native  village.  So  great  was  his  mental  quick 
ness  that  he  learned  the  tasks  imposed  upon  him  with  little  effort 
or  study.  His  temperament  was  active  and  joyous.  He  was  the 
leader  in  all  boyish  sports.  His  mother  had  not  forgotten  the 
promise  of  Mr.  Dillingham  to  make  a  lawyer  of  her  son.  She  was 
proud  of  her  bright  and  handsome  boy.  She  aided  him  in  his 
studies  and  urged  him  to  prepare  himself  for  the  career  which  she 
believed  would  open  to  him  through  the  kind  offices  of  Mr.  Dil 
lingham. 

In  December,  1838,  when  Merritt  was  fourteen  years  of  age,  he 
one  day  returned  from  school  and  informed  his  father  that  he  had  had 
some  trouble  with  the  schoolmaster;  that  the  cause  of  the  difficulty 
was  the  fact  that  he  knew  more  than  his  teacher,  but  the  result  was 
that  he  had  been  turned  out  of  school.  He  further  stated  that  he 
had  determined  to  go  to  AVaterbury  the  next  morning  for  the  pur 
pose  of  entering  Mr.  Dillingham's  office  as  a  law  student. 

The  father,  knowing  well  the  positive  and  self-reliant  character 
of  his  son,  interposed  no  objection.  On  the  next  morning,  in  the 
midst  of  a  Vermont  winter,  alone  and  on  foot,  but  with  cheerful 
confidence,  he  went  to  Waterbury,  entered  Mr.  Dillingham's  office, 
stated  that  he  was  fourteen  years  of  age  and  had  come  to  study 


10       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

law.  Mr.  Dillingham  was  pleased  with  the  manly  bearing  and 
address  of  the  boy.  He  not  only  admitted  him  to  his  office  as  a 
student,  but  received  him  in  his  house  as  a  member  of  his  family. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  continued  in  Mr.  Dfllingham's  office  until 
1843,  when  he  was  selected  as  a  cadet  to  the  Military  Academy  at 
West  Point.  He  passed  the  required  examination,  and  entered 
the  Academy.  In  1846  he  resigned  his  cadetship  and  resumed 
his  legal  studies. 

It  has  been  erroneously  stated  in  the  newspapers  since  Mr.  CAR 
PENTER'S  death  that  his  resignation  was  in  consequence  of  ill- 
health.  He  was  never  able,  even  while  a  cadet  at  West  Point,  to 
divest  himself  of  the  idea  implanted  in  his  youthful  mind  by  his 
mother,  that  he  was  destined  to  be  a  lawyer.  He  resigned,  not  in 
consequence  of  ill-health,  but  in  order  that  he  might  resume  his 
legal  studies.  He  pursued  the  study  of  the  law  with  great  indus 
try  from  1843  to  1847,  when  he  was  admitted  to  the  courts  of 
Vermont. 

While  a  law  student  in  Vermont  he  heard  much  about  the  learn 
ing  and  eloquence  of  Rufus  Choate ;  and  upon  his  admission  to  the 
Vermont  bar  he  determined  to  go  to  Boston  and,  if  possible,  to 
become  a  student  of  that  great  lawyer.  Accordingly,  in  1847,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-three,  with  an  abundance  of  hope  and  enthusi 
asm,  but  with  only  a  few  dollars  in  his  pocket,  he  went  to  Boston. 

He  had  never  seen  Mr.  Choate,  nor  had  he  any  letter  of  intro 
duction  to  him.  He  ascertained  the  location  of  his  office  by  con 
sulting  the  city  directory.  On  the  morning  after  his  arrival  he 
called  at  Mr.  Choate's  office  and  learned  that  he  was  engaged  in 
court,  but  could  be  seen  at  his  chambers  at  a  certain  hour  after 
court  had  adjourned  for  the  day.  At  the  hour  named  Mr.  CAR 
PENTER  presented  himself  and  was  shown  into  Mr.  Choate's  pri 
vate  room.  He  stated  briefly  who  he  was,  where  he  came  from, 
and  what  he  wanted.  So  favorable  an  impression  did  he  make 


ADDSESS  OF  MK.  CAMERON,  OF  WISCONSIN.  11 

upon  Mr.  Clioate  that  he  at  once  received  him  as  a  student.  Before 
Mr.  Choate  went  to  court  the  next  morning,  perhaps  for  the  pur 
pose  of  testing  the  training  and  mental  capacity  of  his  new  stu 
dent,  lie  handed  him  a  letter  from  a  country  lawyer  asking  his 
opinion  upon  a  case  stated.  Mr.  CARPENTER  even  then  possessed 
extraordinary  powers  for  rapid  and  exhaustive  legal  research.  He 
worked  diligently  on  the  case,  and  when  Mr.  Choate  returned  in 
the  evening  handed  to  him  the  result  of  his  examination  in  the 
shape  of  a  carefully  prepared  opinion.  Mr.  Choate  read  the  opin 
ion,  and,  without  changing  a  word,  said :  "  I  guess  I  can  sign  '  R. 
Choate'  to  that,  and  ask  my  correspondent  to  send  me  a  hundred 
dollars,"  which  he  accordingly  did. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  remained  in  Mr.  Choate's  office  for  upward  of 
a  year.  He  was  then  admitted  to  the  Massachusetts  courts,  and  in 
1848  removed  to  Beloit,  Wisconsin.  He  took  his  law  library  with 
him,  which  consisted  only  of  the  Massachusetts  Reports  and  a  few 
elementary  books.  Soon  after  he  went  to  Wisconsin  he  was  at 
tacked  with  a  painful  and  dangerous  disease  of  the  eyes.  He  went 
to  New  York  for  treatment,  and  remained  there  until  September, 
1850,  when  he  returned  to  Beloit,  and  formed  a  partnership  with 
Mr.  Cheeney,  then  a  leading  lawyer  at  that  bar.  This  partnership 
was  not  dissolved  until  the  spring  of  1856,  when  Mr.  Cheeney 
retired  from  practice. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  was  district  attorney  of  Rock  County  for  one 
term  of  two  years,  commencing  January,  1856.  He  never  held 
any  other  office  until  he  was  elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  in  January,  1869.  Before  1856  he  had  acquired  a  local 
reputation  as  an  industrious,  painstaking,  eloquent,  and  able  young 
lawyer.  He  first  gained  a  State  reputation  by  his  argument  in  the 
quo  warranto  case  against  Governor  Barstow.  This  was  a  remark 
able  case.  Barstow  had  been  governor  for  two  years,  and  was  the 
Democratic  candidate  for  re-election.  He  was  "counted  in"  by 


12       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

the  Democratic  board  of  State  canvassers,  and  was  inaugurated 
with  great  pomp  and  an  unusual  display  of  military  force. 

Bashford,  the  Republican  candidate,  claimed  that  a  majority  of 
votes  had  been  cast  for  him,  and  that  the  "supplemental  returns" 
upon  which  Barstow  had  been  "counted  in"  were  fraudulent.  The 
action  brought  by  Bashford,  the  Republican  claimant,  to  get  pos 
session  of  the  office  of  governor  was  the  first  instance  in  American 
history  where  the  people  of  a  State  resorted  to  the  courts  to  dispos 
sess  a  de  facto  governor  in  the  actual  possession  of  the  executive 
office.  The  interest  taken  by  the  people  of  Wisconsin  in  the  case 
corresponded  with  the  gravity  of  the  principles  and  the  magnitude 
of  the  results  involved.  The  late  Chief-Justice  Ryan,  James  H. 
Knowlton,  and  Timothy  O.  Howe  were  counsel  for  Bashford,  the 
relator.  Jonathan  E.  Arnold,  Harlow  S.  Orton,  and  Mr.  CAR- 
PENTER  were  counsel  for  Barstow,  the  respondent.  It  has  been 
lately  said  that  Mr.  CARPENTER  was  the  leading  counsel  for  Bar- 
stow.  That  distinction  must,  however,  be  accorded  to  Mr.  Arnold, 
who  then  stood  at  the  head  of  the  Wisconsin  bar.  Mr.  CARPEN 
TER  was  Barstow's  junior  counsel.  He  made  only  one  argument 
in  the  case.  This  argument  was  read  from  manuscript.  It  was 
learned,  plausible,  and  ingenious.  It  failed  to  convince  the  court, 
but  it  placed  its  author  in  the  front  rank  of  Wisconsin  lawyers. 

Mr.  CARPENTER'S  early  political  affiliations  were  with  the  Dem 
ocratic  party.  He  adhered  to  that  party  long  after  he  became  a 
resident  of  Wisconsin.  He  supported  Pierce  in  1852,  and  Bu 
chanan  in  1856.  He  was  an  ardent  and  enthusiastic  friend  and 
supporter  of  Douglas  in  1860.  After  the  war  began,  in  1861, 
although  still  claiming  to  be  a  Democrat,  he  gave  a  hearty  support 
to  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration. 

In  September,  1862,  the  Democratic  party  of  Wisconsin  held  a 
Sta,te  convention  and  adopted  an  address,  famous  in  the  political 
history  of  that  State,  known  as  the  "  Ryan  address." 


ll>l>i:i:SS  OF  MH.   CAMERON,  OF  WISCONSIN.  13 

A  numerous  and  influential  faction  of  the  Democratic  party,  then 
«ille<l  War  DemocratBj  took  ground  against  the  doctrines  of  this 
address.  In  1863  Mr.  CARPENTER  united  with  other  leading 
Democrats  in  a  call  for  a  mass  convention  of  War  Democrats.  The 
convention  was  held  at  Janesville,  and  was  largely  attended.  Mr. 
CARPENTER  was  the  leading  spirit,  and  made  the  principal  speech. 
An  address  to  the  Democrats  of  the  State  was  adopted,  urging 
them  to  support  the  administration  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  all  its  efforts 
for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  and  advising  a  union  of  all 
citizens  in  favor  of  "conquering  a  peace,"  without  regard  to  pre 
vious  political  associations. 

The  Republican  State  convention  was  held  soon  afterward,  and 
responded  to  the  recommendations  of  the  Janesville  address  by 
nominating  a  Union  ticket,  composed  of  Republicans  and  War 
Democrats. 

The  canvass  that  followed  was  very  earnest  and  spirited.  Mr. 
CARPENTER  actively  participated  in  it.  The  Union  ticket  was 
elected  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 

From  the  day  that  Fort  Sumtcr  was  fired  upon  until  the  sur 
render  at  Appomattox  Mr.  CARPENTER  with  voice  and  pen  gave 
earnest  support  to  the  Union  cause.  No  other  man  did  more, 
perhaps  no  other  man  did  as  much  as  he,  to  rouse  and  intensify  the 
Union  sentiment  and  the  military  spirit  of  the  people  of  Wiscon 
sin.  Illustrative  of  his  power  and  influence,  I  will  venture  to 
relate  an  incident : 

At  one  time  during  the  war  quite  a  large  numl)er  of  the  foreign- 
born  citizens  of  the  State  residing  in  one  of  the  interior  counties,  in 
consequence  of  drafts  and  taxes,  became  discouraged  with  the  pros 
pects  of  the  country,  and  after  consultation  among  themselves  de 
termined  to  return  to  Europe.  At  this  juncture  Mr.  CARPENTER 
was  sent  for.  He  went  where  those  dissatisfied  and  discouraged 
men  had  met  together.  He  mounted  a  dry-goods  box  in  the  street, 


14       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 

and  for  two  hours  addressed  the  people  there  assembled.  For  a 
few  moments  after  his  remarkable  speech  was  concluded  profound 
stillness,  like  that  which  immediately  precedes  the  tornado  or  the 
earthquake,  prevailed.  Then  a  great  shout  was  heard,  and  the  men 
who  had  determined  to  abandon  their  adopted  country  in  its  hour 
of  darkness  and  peril,  swayed  by  Mr.  CARPENTER'S  eloquence,  at 
once  enlisted  in  the  military  service  and  thereafter  fought  the 
battles  of  the  Union  with  zeal  and  fidelity. 

For  some  years  after  the  war  Mr.  CARPENTER  kept  out  of  poli 
tics  and  devoted  himself  with  great  industry  to  his  large  and 
rapidly-increasing  law  practice. 

A  banquet  was  given  to  General  Sherman  at  Janesville  in  1866. 
Mr.  CARPENTER  was  one  of  the  guests,  and  responded  to  a  toast 
which  involved  the  Republican  plan  for  reconstructing  the  States 
then  lately  in  insurrection.  His  speech  was  strong,  eloquent,  witty, 
profound,  and  statesmanlike.  In  this  speech  he  took  advanced 
ground  on  many  of  the  political  questions  that  had  arisen  out  of 
the  war,  and  made  an  especially -able  argument  in  favor  of  confer 
ring  the  right  of  suffrage  upon  the  then  lately  enfranchised  race. 
He  declared  with  much  emphasis  that  the  newly-acquired  rights  of 
the  freedmeu  could  be  preserved  only  by  placing  the  ballot  in 
their  hands. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  was  a  brilliant  advocate.  He  was  more  than 
this.  He  was  a  profound  and  learned  lawyer.  His  learning  was 
not  confined  to  one  branch  of  the  law.  He  was  equally  ready  and 
equally  admirable  in  every  branch.  His  industry  was  extraordi 
nary  and  his  capacity  for  labor  was  really  phenomenal. 

He  became  a  member  of  the  Senate  on  the  4th  of  March,  1869. 
Here  he  served  no  period  of  pupilage.  One  the  17th  of  March, 
only  thirteen  days  after  the  commencement  of  his  term,  he  made 
an  able  and  elaborate  speech  on  the  bill  to  repeal  the  civil-tenure 
act.  He  was  prominent  in  all  the  great  debates  during  his  eight 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  CAMEROX,  OF  WISCONSIN.  15 

• 

years  of  service  in  the  Senate.  He  defended  his  own  convictions 
with  earnestness  and  firmness,  but  no  bitterness  was  ever  mingled 
with  his  logic  or  his  eloquence.  He  possessed  such  real  good  nature 
and  such  genuine  kindness  that  he  could  overthrow  and  vanquish 
an  opponent  without  leaving  a  sting  behind. 

About  a  year  before  his  death  he  was  advised  by  his  physicians 
that  he  would  probably  die  within  a  few  months.  He  then  care 
fully  studied  his"dist>ase,  and  satisfied  himself  that  the  opinion  given 
by  his  physicians  was  correct.  With  the  black  shadow  of  death 
hanging  over  him,  he  continued  faithfully,  and  even  with  cheerful 
ness,  to  do  his  work.  His  obligations  to  his  numerous  clients  were 
carefully  and  conscientiously  performed,  while  no  duty  in  the 
Senate  was  neglected. 

By  section  1814  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  the  President  is  author 
ized  to  invite  all  the  States  to  provide  and  furnish  statues,  in 
marble  or  bronze,  not  exceeding  two  in  number  for  each  State,  of 
deceased  persons  who  have  been  citizens  thereof  and  illustrious  for 
their  historic  renown,  or  for  distinguished  civic  or  military  serv 
ices,  such  as  each  State  may  deem  to  be  worthy  of  this  national 
commemoration;  and  when  so  furnished  the  same  shall  be  placed 
in  the  old  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Maine  has  sent  William  King;  Massachusetts  has  sent  John 
Winthrop  and  Samuel  Adams;  Vermont  has  contributed  Ethan 
Allen  and  Jacob  Collamer;  Rhode  Island  has  sent  Roger  Williams 
and  Nathan ial  Greene;  Connecticut,  Jonathan  Trumbull  and  Roger 
Sherman ;  New  York,  Robert  R.  Livingston  and  George  Clinton ; 
Virginia,  George  Washington  and  Thomas  Jefferson;  and  the 
statue  of  the  eloquent  and  gallant  Edward  D.  Baker  was  con 
tributed  to  this  "noble  galaxy"  by  a  far-off  State  whose  shores 
are  laved  by  the  waves  of  the  Pacific  sea. 

I  trust  that  Wisconsin,  in  her  own  good  time,  will  contribute 
a  statue  in  enduring  bronze  or  marble  of  our  departed  friend, 


16       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 

• 

MATTHEW  HALE  CAEPENTEE,  and  that  the  same  will  be  placed 
in  that  noble  and  historic  Hall,  which  in  the  "brave  days  of  old" 
resounded  with  the  glowing  eloquence  of  Clay,  the  ponderous 
arguments  of  Webster,  the  acute  and  subtle  logic  of  Calhoun,  and 
the  gorgeous  rhetoric  of  Choate. 


Address  of  Mr.  GARLAND,  of  Arkansas. 

Nearly  a  year  has  elapsed,  Mr.  President,  since  the  clear,  ring 
ing  voice  and  the  charming  language  of  Mr.  CAEPENTEB  were 
heard  in  this  Chamber ;  yet  those  of  us  who  were  associated  with 
him  here  have  not  become  used  to  his  absence.  We  cannot  even 
now  fully  realize  that  his  name  has  passed  from  the  roll  of  living, 
acting  men,  as  gently  and  noiselessly  as  the  sunlight  departs  from 
the  hills.  Indeed,  for  so  long  a  time  before  he  was  struck  down  did 
he  fill  such  a  place  in  the  public  view,  the  chasm  his  death  created 
is  not  soon  to  close  or  soon  to  be  filled. 

It  is  now  not  quite  seventeen  years  since  I  first  met  Mr.  CAE 
PENTEE,  then  young,  joyful,  buoyant,  just  beginning  to  rise  before 
the  popular  gaze.  He  was  then  the  very  picture  of  health  and 
bodily  vigor,  and  gave  more  promise  of  a  long  life  than  any  of  the 
large  crowd  assembled  in  the  Supreme  Court  room,  where  he  was. 
It  was  then  he  argued  before  that  court  the  Lawyers'  test-oath  case, 
reported  in  the  fourth  volume  of  Wallace's  Reports.  That  argu 
ment  brought  him  fresh  praise  from  all  quarters  and  new  laurels  as 
well.  From  that  time  till  his  death,  a  short  period  indeed,  his 
course  was  onward  and  upward ;  and  yet  a  young  man,  he  had  won 
the  triumphs  that  usually  belong  to  much  older  ones,  and  in  truth 
his  career  of  honor  closed  when  most  men  who  achieve  fame  begin. 
While  he  was  looking  into  the  red  of  the  morning  the  evening  had 
grown  around  him,  and  the  night  came  and  gathered  him  in  its  folds. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  OAKLAND,  OF  ARKANSAS.  17 

From  the  time  I  have  referred  to  till  he  turned  his  pale  face  to 
the  wall  there  was  between  him  and  myself  a  sincere  friendship, 
and  in  more  than  one  instance  did  he  certify  to  that  in  substantial 
and  valuable  acts,  and  on  more  than  one  occasion  did  he  serve  in 
her  troubles  the  State  that  honors  me  with  a  seat  here,  and  the  peo 
ple  of  that  State  have  a  kind  and  tender  remembrance  of  Mr.  CAR 
PENTER,  which  will  not  l>e  dimmed  with  the  coming  and  going  of 
the  years. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  was  usually  called  a  bright,  a  brilliant  man;  he 
was  that,  and  more  than  that,  With  talent,  with  genius,  he  did 
not  rely  solely  upon  them,  but  he  went  back  and  gathered  up  the 
thoughts  of  the  masters  of  the  past,  and  these  he  read  by  day  and 
studied  by  night,  and  stopped  not  short  of  the  very  fountains  to 
drink  of  knowledge.  While  he  was  quick  and  bright,  he  was  also 
cultivated,  solid,  and  logical,  and  the  weapons  with  which  he  was 
equipped  for  the  battle  of  life  were  sharp  and  strong  and  of  ethe 
real  temper,  and  with  them  he  won  a  fame  that  will  shine  like  a 
star  above  his  grave.  As  Cicero  said  of  Mucius  Scaevola,  so  it  may 
be  said  of  Mr.  CARPENTER — he  was  the  most  eloquent  among 
lawyers,  and  the  best  lawyer  among  men  of  eloquence. 

The  truth  is,  the  demands  in  his  profession  and  in  public  affairs 
upon  Mr.  CARPENTER'S  time  and  energies  burdened  him  beyond 
endurance,  and  he  sank  beneath  their  exactions.  But  amid  all  these, 
when  the  enemy  was  approaching  and  it  was  certain  his  hand  would 
not  be  stayed,  he  bore  up  with  that  genuine  good  humor  and  flow 
of  spirits  that  characterized  him  in  health,  with  no  complaints,  no 
murmurs.  Kind  and  genial,  I  believe  he  was  the  enemy  of  no  one. 
He  was  devoted  to  duty,  whatever  that  was  and  wherever  it  called 
him;  and  no  one  who  witnessed  his  struggles  against  the  inevitable 
in  meeting  the  demands  of  duty  could  but  be  reminded  of  the 
Japanese  fable,  where  the  beautiful  night  moth  sends  those  moths 
enamored  of  her  to  bring  her  fire  till  they  fall  victims  to  the  flames. 
L'  c 


18       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  U.  CARPENTER. 

In  cursory  reading  some  little  while  ago,  Mr.  President,  I  found  a 
short  sentence,  said  to  have  been  his  production,  which  gives  forth  in 
plaintive  language  his  view  of  this  thing  we  call  life.  I  will  read  it : 

The  loves  and  friendships  of  individuals  partaking  of  the  frail  character  of 
human  life  may  be  shortly  summed  up :  A  little  loving  and  a  good  deal  of  sor 
rowing  ;  some  bright  hopes  and  many  bitter  disappointments ;  some  gorgeous 
Thursdays,  when  the  skies  are  bright  and  the  heavens  blue,  when  Providence, 
bending  over  us  in  blessing,  glads  the  heart  almost  to  madness;  many  dismal 
Fridays,  when  the  smoke  of  torment  beclouds  the  mind  and  undying  sorrows 
gnaw  upon  the  heart ;  some  high  ambitions  and  many  Waterloo  defeats,  until 
the  heart  becomes  like  a  charnel-house,  filled  with  dead  affections,  embalmed 
in  holy  but  sorrowful  memories;  and  then  the  cord  is  loosened,  the  golden 
bowl  is  broken,  the  individual  life — a  cloud,  a  vapor — passeth  away. 

Probably  this  was  the  inspiration  of  one  of  those  moments  of 
sadness  that  at  times  come  to  us  all.  But  it  is  a  faithful  summary 
at  last.  He  had  seen  and  felt  all  that  he  said.  Still  his  life,  with 
its  share  of  trials  and  crosses,  was  a  success  and  is  full  of  good  ex 
ample,  stimulating  lessons,  and  noble  encouragement  to  the  young 
men  of  the  land.  Born  and  reared  with  no  wealth,  with  no  pre 
vious  family  name  or  prestige  to  rest  upon,  alone  with  his  own  great 
mind  and  energies,  he  arose  from  the  very  groundwork  of  society, 
and  became  one  of  the  wonderful  men  of  this  wonderful  age  and 
of  this  wonderful  country. 

It  is  needless  for  me  to  speak  of  his  public  services.  The  Senator 
who  has  just  spoken,  once  his  colleague  on  this  floor,  has  given 
them  to  us  well  and  aptly.  They  are  of  record  all  round  and  about 
us  and  are  now  a  part  of  the  nation's  valued  property.  His  loss 
to  his  country  is  great,  to  his  friends  and  family  beyond  estimate, 
but  to  all  let  the  hope  come  that  the  tear-drop  of  sorrow  that  is 
shed  to-day  will  be  caught  up  and  made  to  glow  and  sparkle  in  the 
rainbow  of  promise  of  to-morrow,  without  which  hope  life's  bur 
dens  and  charges  would  be  unbearable.  And  let  friends  and  fam 
ily  all  know  that  his  name  and  fame  will  be  treasured  tenderly  in 
the  land  and  "  that  his  memorial  shall  not  depart  away." 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.   LOU  AN,  OF  ILLINOIS.  19 


Address  of  Mr.  LOGAN,  of  Illinois. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  It  is  with  no  ordinary  feeling  of  sadness  that 
I  rise  to  say  a  few  words  in  reference  to  the  character  and  memory 
of  our  deceased  friend  and  former  associate  in  the  Senate,  MAT 
THEW  H.  CARPENTER.  Others  who  have  preceded  me  have  given 
the  date  of  his  birth,  early  education,  and  cxeperience  in  early  life. 
Sir,  his  nobleness  of  character  and  greater  tenderness  of  heart  made 
him  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him  well.  Frank  and  cordial  in  his 
greetings  to  all,  he  was  ever  ready  to  extend  a  helping  hand  to 
those  in  need.  The  last  time  he  was  out  of  his  home  was  to  ask 
that  an  unfortunate  friend  be  given  employment.  He  had  been 
very  ill,  but  was  convalescing  when  this  person  appealed  to  him 
to  make  the  effort  in  his  behalf.  Mastering  by  his  great  will 
power  the  physical  weakness  of  the  hour,  he  ordered  his  carriage, 
and  by  the  assistance  of  a  servant  entered  it  and  drove  to  a  depart 
ment  in  this  city,  sought  the  chief,  and  earnestly  presented  his 
friend's  cause,  and,  as  one  can  imagine,  was  successful ;  returning 
home  much  exhausted,  he  took  his  IKK!  never  to  rise  a<j;ain. 

Sir,  I  wish  I  had  the  power  to  properly  portray  the  loss  our 
country  must  fec'l  in  the  death  of  our  brother  Senator,  but  I 
have  nof. 

I  am  aware,  however,  sir,  that  in  speaking  of  the  dead  who  have 
long  been  closely  associated  with  us  in  life  we  are  naturally  inclined 
to  rofer  only  to  the  brighter  characteristics  of  their  lives,  and  to 
extol  their  talents  and  virtues,  showing  that  our  better  natures  are 
touched  by  the  grief  and  sad  bereavement  of  others,  and  that  the 
envy  and  jealousies  of  human  nature  are  lost  in  tears  of  sorrow. 

The  ordinary  duties  of  public  life  have  a  tendency  to  draw  our 
attention  to  the  mercenary  side  of  human  character,  and  but  seldom 
lead  us  to  look  upon  the  brighter,  nobler,  and  greater  traits  of 


20   LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

man's  nature,  so  that  except  on  occasions  of  this  kind  (when  the 
tender  chords  of  the  heart  are  touched)  does  the  mind  turn  back 
over  the  pathway  of  the  life  of  others  to  gather  up  the  flowers 
strewn  along  it,  that  they  may  be  presented  as  mementoes  to  the 
nation  and  friends;  but  with  our  hearts  touched  and  softened  we 
are  led  for  a  time  to  study  the  better  part  of  human  character,  and 
forget  the  trivial  things  that  are  apt  to  be  the  more  considered  in 
our  daily  intercourse  with  each  other.  Man  is  not  perfect.  The 
deceased  brother  of  whom  we  speak  to-day  was  but  a  man.  He 
like  others  may  have  made  mistakes,  but,  sir,  they  were  of  such  in 
significance  that  soon  they  will  be  lost  to  memory;  while  on  the 
other  hand  the  nobler  and  better  points  of  his  character  were  many, 
and  well  marked,  and  of  a  nature  to  impress  themselves  vividly 
upon  the  minds  of  all  who  were  intimately  acquainted  with  him. 
He  was  a  gentle  and  kind  husband  and  a  most  generous  and  indul 
gent  father ;  his  home  bore  the  impress  of  these  virtues,  and  now 
by  its  silent  gloom  gives  out  the  deep  affliction  of  his  once  bright 
and  happy  family,  as  before  mentioned. 

One  of  the  well-marked  characteristics  of  the  deceased  was  his 
generosity  and  kindness.  This  he  showed  in  many  ways  and  on 
all  occasions.  A  beautiful  compliment  was  once  paid  to  a  Senator, 
which  was  that  "the  consciousness  of  having  unintentionally  used 
a  discourteous  expression  would  bring  a  blush  to  his  face."  It 
might  with  equal  propriety  be  said  of  Senator  CARPENTER,  that 
the  consciousness  of  having  wounded  the  feelings  of  a  brother 
Senator  would  have  given  a  much  deeper  wound  to  his  own  heart. 
As  a  debater  in  the  Senate  on  important  questions  he  but  seldom 
found  his  equal.  He  reached  his  conclusions  by  careful  and 
thorough  investigation.  His  convictions  reached  were  clear  on  sub 
jects  often  more  or  less  clouded  with  doubt  in  the  minds  of  others. 
He  never  left  the  investigation  of  a  question  without  having  a 
decided  "yes"  or  "no"  to  give  in  reply.  This  was  doubtless  due 


ADD K ESS  OF  MB.  LOGAN,  OF  ILLINOIS.  21 

in  a  great  measure  to  his  long  training  in  the  discussion  of  difficult 
and  complicated  legal  questions,  where  a  decided  position  was  neces 
sary  to  success.  His  method  seemed  to  have  been  to  fix  upon  what 
he  conceived  to  be  the  one  strong  point  in  the  case,  and  then  to 
turn  upon  it  all  the  light  afforded  by  authorities  and  logical  reason 
ing.  All  who  have  heard  him  will  bear  witness  to  his  clear  rea 
soning  on  all  questions  which  he  debated.  No  matter  how  difficult 
and  complicated  the  question  might  be,  his  own  views  were  so  clear 
and  distinctly  set  forth  that  the  most  unlearned  listener  was  enabled 
to  comprehend  his  position  and  reasoning.  His  great  strength  as  a 
debater  consisted  mainly  in  his  logic,  which  was  precise,  almost 
mathematical,  in  its  demonstrations;  but  when  he  did  resort  to 
irony  or  ridicule,  it  was  terrible  in  its  effect.  The  only  way  to 
meet  the  effect  of  one  of  his  arguments  was  to  attack  his  premises. 
When  once  he  had  his  line  of  argument  he  followed  step  by  step  to 
the  logical  conclusion,  no  matter  how  ultra  or  startling  the  conclu 
sion  might  be. 

His  apj>earance  on  the  floor  and  his  voice  were  in  exact  accord 
with  the  mental  characteristics  mentioned.  The  expression  of  his 
countenance,  his  tones  in  speaking,  even  his  very  attitude,  beto 
kened  a  feeling  of  confidence  that  favorably  impressed  his  hearers 
and  riveted  their  attention.  His  words  came  forth  with  such  clear 
and  ringing  sound  that  every  syllable  would  l>e  distinctly  heard 
and  understood.  Not  only  did  the  motitfi  speak,  but  the  whole 
man  seemed  to  take  a  part  in  giving  utterance  to  his  views.  Yet 
he  spoke  with  an  ease  and  gracefulness  that  was  peculiarly  his  own. 
Usually  feeling  too  confined  in  the  narrow  space  of  his  seat,  it  was 
his  custom  to  step  into  the  aisle  that  he  might  the  better  give  free 
expression  to  his  thoughts. 

His  method  of  thought  and  mode  of  reasoning,  as  a  natural  con 
sequence,  had  a  tendency  to  carry  him  to  thc~extreme  point  in  the 
direction  his  convictions  led  him  on  all  the  questions  of  the  day. 


22       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

His  position,  therefore,  on  important  measures  and  problems  was 
always  radical,  and  it  may  be  truly  said  of  him  that  he  never  gave 
an  "uncertain  sound"  in  expressing  them.  Whatever  may  be 
thought  of  the  views  he  maintained  on  any  of  the  political  issues  of 
his  day,  all  must  admit  that  they  were  distinctly  stated,  clearly 
understood,  and  manfully  and  ably  advocated. 

Although  exceedingly  jealous  of  the  honor  of  his  government, 
yet  even  on  questions  where  this  was  involved  he  applied  the  same 
rigidly  logical  method  of  reaching  a  decision  as  to  the  justice  of  the 
case,  and  allowed  no  other  consideration  to  swerve  him  from  his 
course. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  was  beyond  question  one  of  the  great  orators 
of  his  day. 

When  the  history  of  the  present  age  is  written  it  will  undoubt 
edly  pronounce  Mr.  CARPENTER  as  one  of  the  great  men  of  his 
time — great  in  legal  ability,  great  as  an  orator,  and  great  as  a  de 
bater,  and  also  as  having  occupied  a  high  position  as  a  statesman. 
And  when  it  reaches  the  page  where  his  death  must  be  recorded,  it 
will  be  with  a  deep  sigh  of  regret  that  the  nation  should  have  been 
deprived  of  the  services  of  one  so  able  while  yet  in  the  strength 
and  vigor  of  manhood. 

In  his  personal  intercourse  he  was  always  kind  and  affable,  list 
ening  with  the  same  patience  and  attention  to  the  humblest  citizen 
as  to  the  most  influential.  Naturally  of  jovial  and  pleasant  dispo 
sition,  he  was  extremely  fond  of  laying  aside  for  a  time  the  cares 
of  his  public  position  and  entering  into  free  and  social  intercourse; 
but  even  here  he  seemed  most  delighted  when  the  conversation  par 
took  of  that  character  indicating  an  elevated  range  of  thought. 

As  a  lawyer  he  was  a  profound  thinker  and  brilliant  advocate; 
he  was  a  great  student  and  a  very  laborious  man;  his  mind  was  a 
vast  storehouse  of  legal  lore.  If  equaled,  certainly  not  surpassed, 
in  that  fervent  eloquence  and  clear  logic  which  made  him  a  power 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  KELLOGG,  OF  LOUISIANA.  23 

before  any  legal  tribunal.  His  life  as  a  lawyer  was  unsullied  in 
everything  which  looks  to  professional  honor. 

But,  sir,  he  is  gone  from  our  midst ;  he  is  mourned  by  the  bar, 
by  the  Senate,  and  by  the  country ;  he  will  be  heard  no  more  in 
this  Hall;  his  voice  is  hushed  forever. 

Sir,  soon  after  his  death  we  took  his  remains  to  his  home  in  Wis 
consin  and  there  quietly  laid  them  down  in  the  tomb,  where  "  he 
sleeps  the  sleep  that  knows  no  waking."  A  mighty  throng  had 
assembled  in  Milwaukee  to  receive  the  remains;  the  immense  num 
ber  of  people  who  came  out  stood  with  bathed  cheeks  and  sobbing 
hearts,  giving  evidence  of  the  great  affection  they  had  for  him  and 
of  the  great  loss  they  had  sustained  in  his  death;  and  well  might 
his  friends  weep  and  mourn  at  their  own  and  their  nation's  loss. 
For,  sir,  his  was  a  great  loss.  Mr.  President,  lessons  are  constantly 
being  taught  us,  by  the  demise  of  our  friends,  that  we  are  traveling 
the  same  "  broad  road  "  to  death. 

The  tomb  is  silent  and  gives  forth  no  warning  to  the  living,  but 
there  is  a  still  small  voice  that  constantly  whispers,  "A  life  beyond," 
where  a  power  shall  "  unseal  the  thunders  "  and  give  "  voice  to  the 
graves." 


Address  of  Mr.  KELLOGG,  of  Louisiana. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  The  death  of  a  distinguished  associate  in  this 
body  imparts  new  emphasis  to  the  public  labors  with  which  his 
talents  and  energies  were  identified.  A  great  man  is  never  so  great 
as  when  he  passes  behind  the  veil;  his  silence  is  eloquent  with  the 
remembrance  of  his  past  deeds. 

The  distinguished  Senator  whose  lamented  death  now  occupies 
the  attention  of  the  Senate  was  so  versatile  in  his  attainments  and 
in  his  sympathies,  and  so  many-sided  in  his  character,  that  it  is 
fitting  there  should  be  among  his  former  associates  who  now  unite 


24       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 

in  a  tribute  to  his  memory,  those  representing  wide  divergences  of 
geographical  lines  and  grave  differences  of  political  opinion. 

It  has  often  occurred  to  me  since  Mr.  CARPENTER'S  untimely 
death  that  the  scenes  and  natural  surroundings  of  his  childhood — 
scenes  with  which  I  am  personally  somewhat  familiar — may  have 
exercised  no  little  influence  upon  his  later  career.  He  was  born  at 
Moretown,  Vermont,  on  the  side  of  a  mountain,  down  which  and 
past  his  dwelling  rushed  a  stream  called  Mad  River,  hastily  impa 
tient  of  all  obstacles,  at  times  swollen  with  rains  or  melted  snows,  a 
torrent  resistlessly  impetuous  in  its  force,  and  at  other  times  spark 
ling  in  the  generous  sunlight  and  filling  the  pleasant  valleys  below 
with  liquid  music.  The  varied  moods  of  nature  in  his  mountain 
home  were  reflected  in  his  after  life,  and  gave  tone  and  color  to  his 
maturer  years.  Shadow  and  sunshine  chased  each  other  through 
out  his  whole  career. 

What  deeper  grief,  for  instance,  could  assail  an  able  and  ambi 
tious  young  man  just  entering  life  than  total  blindness,  prolonged 
through  nearly  three  dreary  years  ?  Yet  even  through  this  dark 
ness  rays  of  sunlight  streamed.  He  had  found  in  that  great  Mas 
sachusetts  jurist,  Rufus  Choate,  a  friend  who  had  seen  the  capacities 
that  were  in  him,  who  had  poured  out  before  him  his  stores  of  legal 
knowledge,  and  who  stood  by  him  with  Samaritan  benevolence 
until,  happily,  his  sight  was  restored  and  he  was  enabled  again  to 
enter  the  arena  of  life.  There  is  no  question  that  this  period  of 
enforced  seclusion  and  reflection  exercised  a  marked  influence  on 
Mr.  CARPENTER'S  future. 

More  familiar  hands  than  mine  have  sketched  the  subsequent 
career  of  the  rising  young  lawyer;  how,  after  migrating  to  Wiscon 
sin,  his  consummate  attainments  forced  him  out  of  the  compara 
tive  obscurity  of  the  little  town  of  Beloit,  in  which  he  first  settled, 
into  wider  fields  of  labor.  I  refer,  in  passing,  to  his  enthusiastic 
adherence  to  Stephen  A.  Douglas  and  his  theory  of  te  squatter  sov- 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.    KELLOGG,  OF  LOUISIANA.  25 

ereignty,"  and  his  subsequent  hearty  support  of  the  National  Gov 
ernment  when  it  was  called  upon  to  determine  by  force  of  arms 
whether  the  majority  should  be  coerced  by  the  minority,  only  as 
instances  of  that  love  of  freedom  which  he  had  brought  with  him 
from  his  home  in  the  mountains  of  Vermont. 

Elected  to  the  Senate  in  one  of  the  most  momentous  periods  of 
the  nation's  history,  it  needs  no  words  of  mine  to  recall  the  services 
that  he  rendered.  They  are  written  in  the  chronicles  of  the  time. 
He  entered  the  Senate  grandly  equipped  for  the  discharge  of  his 
duties.  Erudite  in  law,  of  mature  years  and  quick  perception,  and 
with  marked  abilities  for  debate,  he  stepped  at  once  to  the  front  and 
held  his  ground  to  the  last.  It  may  l>c  that  his  adroit,  self-confident 
power  of  fence,  cultivated  by  long  experience  at  the  bar,  sometimes 
tempted  him  to  wield  the  rapier  rather  than  the  saber  in  defense  of 
a  public  interest.  When  the  maintenance  of  republican  govern 
ments  established  in  some  of  the  Southern  States,  under  the  acts  of 
Congress  passed  subsequent  to  the  war,  Ixjcame  the  subject  of  burn 
ing  debate  in  this  body,  Senator  CARPENTER  adopted  views  which 
brought  him  into  sharp  antagonism  with  that  other  illustrious 
Western  Senator,  Mr.  Morton,  of  Indiana,  who  also  has  been  called 
to  take  his  place  in  the  silent  halls  of  death.  The  memory  of  that 
contest  will  l>e  fresh  in  the  minds  of  many  now  present.  It  was  a 
struggle  of  intellectual  giants,  of  consummate  skill  and  dexterity  of 
thrust  and  fence  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  mighty  force  and  direct 
ness  of  aim  on  the  other.  Into  the  merits  of  that  controversy  it  is 
not  my  purpose  to  enter,  nor  would  it  perhaps  IKJ  decorous  for  me 
to  do  so.  They  have  been  referred  to  the  arbitrament  of  Time. 
Nor  do  I  wish  to  awaken  the  echoes  of  the  past  further  than  to  say 
that  in  my  l>elief,  founded  upon  remarks  whicff  Mr.  CARPENTER 
made  to  his  friends  in  later  years,  had  his  life  been  spared  a  little 
longer,  some  opinions  which  he  then  urged  upon  the  Senate,  with  all 
the  forceful  logic  of  which  lie  was  so  great  a  master,  would 


26       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

have  been  changed,  and  some  conclusions  arrived  at  on  too  hastily 
assumed  premises  would  have  been  modified. 

And  if  any  feeling  of  resentment  may  have  been  indulged  within 
his  party  because  of  his  course  at  times,  it  was  disavowed  long  before 
his  death,  and  there  is  no  Republican,  North  or  South,  to-day  who 
would  not  in  proud  remembrance  of  his  public  service  lay  his  hand 
upon  the  urn  of  MATTHEW  HALE  CARPENTER  and  say,  as  said 
Brutus,  "  In  this  I  bury  all  unkindness." 

It  has  been  well  remarked  of  him  that  his  mind  worked  by 
impulse.  An  illustration  of  this  fact  the  Senate  will  perhaps 
pardon  me  for  recalling,  even  though  some  of  the  incidents  may 
seem  trivial.  When  one  who  is  held  in  affectionate  remembrance 
has  passed  beyond  mortal  ken,  even  slight  reminiscences  often  have 
value,  especially  when  indicating  distinguishing  points  of  character; 
and  this  particular  instance  illustrates  not  only  the  peculiarity  to 
which  I  have  referred,  but  that  marvelous  power  of  memory  which 
formed  one  of  Mr.  CARPENTER'S  most  extraordinary  gifts.  In  the 
summer  of  1873  Mr.  CARPENTER  visited  New  Orleans  on  the 
invitation  of  prominent  citizens,  chiefly  his  heretofore  political 
opponents,  to  deliver  an  address  upon  the  political  situation.  He 
then  saw  Louisiana  with  his  own  eyes  for  the  first  time.  The 
marvelous  fertility  of  its  soil,  the  beauty  of  its  semi-tropical  prod 
ucts,  the  absence  of  the  evidences  of  enterprise  and  thrift  and 
careful  husbandry,  and  the  all-engrossing  attention  bestowed  upon 
political  broils  arrested  his  attention,  and  on  the  impulse  which 
these  surroundings  gave  him  he  made  a  speech  the  brilliancy  and 
force  of  which  will  not  soon  be  forgotten.  He  spoke  extempo 
raneously  for  nearly  three  hours,  amidst  a  scene  of  great  excitement, 
with  frequent  interruptions. 

Leading  newspapers  of  New  Orleans  had  arranged  to  lay  before 
their  readers  a  verbatim  report  of  the  eloquent  Senator's  oration, 
and  the  audience,  which  packed  the  largest  theater  of  the  city,  as 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  KELLOGG,  OF  LOUISIANA.  27 

well  as  hundreds  of  others  who  had  been  unable  to  obtain  admission, 
looked  eagerly  for  a  report  of  that  address.  It  never  appeared. 
From  a  partisan  stand-point  it  was  not  what  was  either  expected 
or  desired.  The  wish  of  the  people  generally  to  raid  what  he  had 
said  was  communicated  to  Mr.  CARPENTER,  and  a  stenographer 
was  placed  at  his  disposal.  With  some  reluctance  he  consented  to 
attempt  to  reproduce  his  addrass.  Pacing  rapidly  the  floor  of  his 
room,  pausing  every  now  and  then  to  collect  his  thoughts  and  recall 
the  surrounding  incidents  of  the  occasion,  he  dictated  the  speech,  as 
he  remembered  it,  interruptions  included,  and  it  was  published. 
Afterward  a  transcript  of  the  short-hand  notes  of  his  address  as 
actually  delivered  in  the  first  instance  was  procured,  and  on  a  com 
parison  it  was  found  that  the  two  speeches,  uttered  three  days  apart, 
and  without  the  aid  of  note  or  memorandum,  varied  scarcely  the 
turn  of  a  sentence  or  the  substitution  of  a  word. 

Of  the  influence  which  Senator  CARPENTER  exerted  in  this 
Senate  I  need  not  speak.  I  believe  that  not  one  of  his  associates 
in  this  body  failed  to  appreciate  his  innate  and  cultivated  powers 
more  than  did  he  himself.  Although  affluent  in  resources  and 
opportunities  for  their  use,  he  seemed  unambitious  to  achieve  great 
distinction  in  American  politics.  He  surprised  fame,  but  never 
deliberately  pursued  her.  The  same  restive  temper  which  impelled 
him  to  abandon  the  discipline  of  West  Point  in  two  years  some 
what  distinguished  him  in  his  later  years,  despite  the  professional 
reputation  which  he  justly  won.  Notwithstanding  the  license  of 
view  permitted  to  his  profession,  and  of  which  he  sometimes  availed 
himself  in  this  Senate,  all  who  knew  him  well  knew  that  his  instincts 
were  Republican  at  the  root.  While  he  may  not  rank  as  a  very 
great  statesman,  while  his  Republicanism  was  a  tranquil  faith  rather 
than  an  impetuous  passion,  he  will  l>e  remembered  as  one  who 
devoted  his  great  powers  to  the  public  weal,  and  as  an  advocate 
whose  courage  when  roused,  and  whose  brilliance,  coherence,  and 


28       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 

strength  of  argument  before  Senate,  court,  and  people  were  tributary 
to  honest  ends. 

Choate — the  Edmund  Burke,  perhaps,  of  our  country — predicted 
a  brilliant  future  for  his  young  student,  but  Mr.  CARPENTER  found, 
as  did  his  distinguished  teacher,  greater  provocations  to  effort  at  the 
•bar  than  in  legislative  halls.  Through  the  work  of  this  and  future 
Senates  will  run  threads  of  national  purpose  in  connection  with 
which  will  be  felt  the  subtle  and  familiar  touch  of  his  unseen  hand. 
Had  he  been  permitted  to  survive  the  next  ten  or  fifteen  years,  there 
is  little  doubt  that  he  would  have  commanded  public  attention  and 
added  to  his  fame  in  much  greater  measure.  His  views  and  hopes 
for  the  future  were  honorable  alike  to  his  country,  his  head,  and  his 
heart.  On  the  eve  of  battle  a  great  soldier  has  often  drawn  upon 
the  ground  with  his  sword  his  plan  for  the  morrow ;  there  are  deep 
traces  in  the  memories  of  some  of  projects  which  were  dear  to  his 
heart,  but  which  his  arm  may  never  compass  now.  He  was  wholly 
unselfish,  with  every  title  to  the  love  of  his  friends,  to  the  respect  of 
his  political  enemies,  to  the  gratitude  of  many  whom  be  genuinely 
served,  and  to  the  pride  of  his  country.  The  remembrance  of  the 
breadth  of  his  legal  attainments,  the  brilliancy  of  his  eloquence, 
the  exuberance  of  his  wit,  his  magnetic  charm  of  manner,  and  the 
generosity  of  his  nature  will  long  survive,  and  in  the  Valhalla  of 
the  heroic  dead  who  have  done  valiant  deeds  in  the  cause  of  human 
progress  I  venture  to  believe  that  the  name  of  MATTHEW  HALE 
CARPENTER  will  hold  an  honored  place. 


Address  of  Mr.  BAYARD,  of  Delaware. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  To  "weep  with  them  that  weep"  is  an  injunc 
tion  difficult  indeed  to  disobey  when  the  cause  of  mourning  is  the 
death  of  a  man  so  highly  endowed  and  accomplished  as  our  late 
associate,  MATTHEW  II.  CARPENTER,  of  Wisconsin. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  BAYARD,  OF  DELAWARE,  '29 

It  would  be  useless  iteration  to  attempt  portrayal  of  his  career 
and  character  after  the  full  and  interesting  history  of  both,  just 
recounted  to  the  Senate.  But,  responding  to  the  request  of  those 
who  held  elose  relations  to  our  deceased  friend  and  brother  Senator, 
I  add  my  expression  of  sincere  sorrow  for  his  loss,  and  pay  this 
humble  tribute  to  his  memory. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  first  became  a  member  of  the  Senate  on  the 
same  day  I  did ;  our  personal  acquaintance  was  then  formed,  and 
kindly  relations  were  soon  established  l>etween  us  which  although 
never  of  close  intimacy  continued  unbroken  until  his  death. 

This  period  since  March,  1869,  has  been  fruitful  of  issues  and 
events  of  the  gravest  public  interest  and  significance,  and  their  dis 
cussion  in  this  Chaml>er  has  oftentimes  l>een  accompanied  with  nat 
ural  and  deep  feeling,  which  found  its  expression  in  prolonged, 
earnest,  and  excited  debate.  In  such  timas  and  amid  such  scenes 
my  personal  knowledge  of  Mr.  CARPENTER  has  been  gathered. 

He  entered  the  Senate  with  high  repute  as  an  advocate  and  jurist, 
and  was  well  equipped  and  trained  for  the  duties  of  his  post,  so  that 
at  once  and  naturally  he  took  rank  as  an  acknowledged  leader  in  the 
councils  of  the  party  in  majority,  and  the  deliberations  of  the  body. 

With  but  little  prior  parliamentary  experience,  his  remarkable 
versatility  and  facility  of  acquisition  exhibited  itself  in  his  rapid 
and  easy  mastery  of  the  rules  of  the  Senate  and  the  duties  of  its 
presidency,  to  fill  which  he  wras  repeatedly  chosen  by  his  associates. 

His  familiarity  with,  and  ability  in  discussing,  points  of  constitu 
tional  and  statutory  law,  together  with  his  unrivalled  intimacy  with 
judicial  decisions,  caused  his  arguments  and  opinions  to  be  received 
at  all  times  with  exceptional  and  attentive  interest. 

The  easy  flow,  the  careless  grace  and  persuasiveness  of  his 
methods  and  manner  of  reasoning,  his  felicity  of  diction  and  pleas 
ant  elocution,  all  combined  to  win  assent,  and  render  disagreement 
from  his  propositions  a  difficult  task. 


30       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 

As  an  orator,  he  possessed  gifts  of  a  high  order,  for  he  was 
always  natural,  simple,  and  affecting,  free  from  mannerism  and 
vociferation,  never  posing  for  effect,  nor  bedecking  his  speeches 
with  the  artificial  flowers  and  tawdry  accessories  of  theatrical  prep 
aration. 

In  addition  to  a  wide  range  of  sound  legal  learning  he  had  embel 
lished  his  mind  with  a  good  acquaintance  with  belles-lettres,  so  that 
his  speeches  were  never  disfigured  by  the  undraped  angularity  and 
poverty  of  ornament  with  which  mere  law  learning  so  often  marks 
its  professors. 

He  was  never  prosy  nor  tedious,  but  almost  uniformly  brilliant, 
forcible,  and  instructive.  It  was  delightful  to  witness  the  play  of 
his  fine  faculties  and  note  the  ease  with  which  his  mind  did  its 
work. 

Although  a  close  and  laborious  student,  yet  in  the  Senate  or  the 
forum,  "the  smell  of  the  lamp"  was  seldom  to  be  detected  in  his 
speeches;  and,  while  the  effects  of  preparation  were  felt,  the  appear 
ance  of  effort  was  concealed  by  the  smooth  working  of  his  intel 
lectual  machinery. 

He  was  a  man  of  generous  and  impulsive  nature,  with  a  fertile 
mind  well  stocked  with  ideas,  and  lavish  in  their  outlay.  "Warm 
hearted,  open-handed,  large-minded,  with  a  certain  characteristic 
profusion  in  his  intellectual  expenditures,  as  if  conscious  of  an 
overflowing  reserve  that  mocked  the  calculations  of  ordinary  econ 
omy,  his  powers  were  wonderfully  at  his  command,  and  in  facility 
of  thought,  and  even  still  more  in  the  expression  of  his  thought,  I 
never  met  his  superior. 

His  charities  were  liberal  and  bestowed  without  ostentation. 
Gentle-hearted  and  affectionate,  a  kindly  humor  played  around  his 
utterances  and  healed  the  wounds  so  often  and  heedlessly  inflicted 
in  the  heated  and  heady  currents  of  debate. 

In  this  Senate  Chamber,  the  scene  of  some  of  his  many  triumphs, 


ADHItKSS  OF  Mlt.  HA  YARD,  OF  DELAWARE.  31 

in  the  presence  of  those  who  were  his  witnesses,  may  justly  l>e 
applied  to  him  the  tribute  of  Moore  to  Sheridan: 

Whose  fancy,  as  bright  as  the  fire-fly's  light, 

Played  round  every  object,  and  shone  while  it  played; 

Whose  wit,  in  the  combat,  as  gentle  as  bright, 
Ne'er  carried  a  heart-stain  away  ou  its  blade. 

His  capacity  for  labor  was  great,  and  it  was  freely  exerted; 
for  even  while  taking  an  active  and  important  part  in  the  busi 
ness  of  legislation  lie  conducted  simultaneously  a  leading  prac 
tice  in  the  higher  judicial  courts,  and  to  this  unsparing  and  un 
remitting  toil  the  early  termination  of  his  career  may  largely  l>e 
attributed. 

The  strong  and  peculiar  sympathies  and  intimacies  which  are  the 
outgrowth  of  coincident  opinion  and  action  in  party  politics,  never 
existed  l>etween  Mr.  CARPENTER  and  myself;  but  our  differences 
on  such  subjects  never  caused  disturbance  in  our  kindly  personal 
relations.  I  found  him  ever  a  frank,  generous,  and  courteous  op 
ponent,  whose  good  temper  and  genial  manners  rendered  the  trans 
action  of  public  business  easy  and  agreeable.  He  justly  valued 
and  practiced  the  amenities  of  daily  life,  and  was  in  its  full  sense  a 
lovable  and  companionable  man. 

One  of  England's  chief  worthies,  her  first  lay  chancellor,  Sir 
Thomas  More,  conspicuously  possessed  the  trait  of  gentle  and  merry 
humor  throughout  an  honored  life,  and  history  tells  us  he  exhibited 
it  even  on  the  scaffold,  to  which  a  merciless  tyrant  and  his  own  in 
tegrity  of  soul  conducted  him.  The  same  trait  was  conspicuous  in 
our  deceased  friend,  whose  irrepressible  wit  and  indomitable  humor 
flashed  out  even  when  he  lay  racked  with  extreme  suffering,  and 
under  the  shadow  of  death  itself. 

Mr.  President,  few  assemblies  attest  so  forcibly  the  shortness 
of  human  life  and  the  instability  of  political  position  as  this 
Senate. 


32       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

Less  than  thirteen  years  ago  I  came  here,  and  of  those  who  were 
then  my  party  allies  and  associates  not  one  remains  a  member  of 
the  body  to-day ;  and  of  those  who  were  then  my  associates  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Chamber  there  remain  to-day  but  four. 

This  reflection  is  full  of  sadness,  and  may  not  the  admonition 
accompany  it  that  the  short  period  of  our  co-operation  here  in  the 
service  of  our  country  should  not  be  disfigured  by  unnecessary 
party  heat  or  personal  dissension,  or  rendered  less  pleasant  by  a 
lack  of  mutual  and  kindly  consideration. 

And  of  all  of  those  who  have  thus  come  and  gone  from  this 
theatre  of  our  labors  and  companionship,  not  one  has  there  been 
more  genial,  brilliant,  and  talented  than  the  distinguished  advocate 
and  orator  whose  death  we  so  lament,  and  upon  whose  life  and  ser 
vices  the  eulogies  of  to-day  are  justly  pronounced. 


Address  of  Mr.  EDMUNDS,  of  Vermont. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  In  one  of  the  most  secluded  and  beautiful  of 
the  mountain  valleys  of  Vermont  MATTHEW  HALE  CARPENTER 
was  born  in  the  year  1824.  Mad  River  (so  called  from  the  turbu 
lence  of  its  course)  swept  the  valley  with  its  crystal  waters,  abound 
ing  in  trout,  and  called  with  its  ceaseless  voices  to  the  great  mount 
ain  peaks  and  ridges  that  immediately  surrounded  the  farm  house 
of  his  parents,  breaking  from  this  "haunt  of  ancient  peace,"  alike 
the  shock  of  the  winter  tempests  and  the  fierceness  of  the  summer 
heats. 

Such  was  his  childhood's  home.  How  often  did  he,  doubtless, 
when  in  the  height  of  his  fame  and  in  the  midst  of  the  cares,  and 
contests,  and  victories  of  the  world,  wistfully  look  back  over  the 
receding  years,  from  the  State  of  his  adoption  or  from  the  chief 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  EDMUNDS,  OF  VERMONT.  33 

scat  of  the  government  of  a  nation  in  which  he  had  a  prominent 
part,  to  that  fair  valley,  and  yearn  for  the  peace  and  rest  it  gave  of 
yore,  and  still  compelled  by  fate  to  say: 

Not  again, 

O,  friends,  may  I  behold  bright  Moretown's  vulo 
And  taste  the  sweetness  of  her  mountain  gale, 
I  know  no  home  in  this  dear  land  and  fair 
That  was  my  father's,  and,  its  limits  past 
My  backward  yearning  looks  must  be  my  lost 
That  ever  linger  on  it;  uot  when  laid 
In  the  still  sleep  can  my  returning  shade 
Behold  it  ghostly, — I  shall  have  my  grave 
In  the  far  western  land. 

Mr.  CARPENTER'S  birth-place  and  the  home  of  his  youthful  days 
was  only  a  dozen  miles  from  the  town  of  my  own  nativity,  the  hills 
of  which  I  can  still  see  from  my  present  home,  and  we  first  met 
when  we  were  both  very  young  and  studying  law,  at  a  small  school- 
house  situated  in  the  very  heart  of  the  mountains,  to  contend 
through  the  whole  day  and  night  for  the  rights  of  our  respective 
clients  in  a  very  small  affair,  before  a  farmer  justice  of  the  peace 
and  a  jury  of  six. 

In  his  earlier  as  in  his  later  days  his  characteristics  were  an 
extreme  gentleness  of  disposition,  kindness  of  heart,  and  affability  of 
manner,  combined  with  a  resistless  and  restless  energy  of  intellect 
that  rarely  saw  any  obstacle  too  formidable  to  l>e  assailed. 

He  possessed  a  breadth  of  intellectual  grasp  and  an  acutencss  of 
discrimination  that  I  have  rarely  seen  equaled,  and  his  power  of 
research  and  analysis  was  superb.  His  capacity  for  lucid  statement 
and  logical  deduction  was  perfect;  and  to  all  these  he  added  a 
wealth  of  learning,  particularly  in  the  law,  a  richness  of  voice,  a 
fluency  of  speech,  and  an  eloquence  that  made  him,  I  think,  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  men  of  any  time.  In  the  respects  mentioned 
in  the  passage  I  shall  quote,  his  character  was  an  almost  perfect 
parallel  with  that  of  Hortensius,  perhaps  the  very  finest  of  Roman 
3c 


34       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

lawyers,  as  it  is  described  by  Cicero.     After  mentioning  Cotta's 
manner  of  speaking,  Cicero  says : 

The  language  of  Horteiisius  was  splendid,  warm,  aud  animated,  and  far 
more  lively  and  pathetic  both  in  his  style  and  action.  He  had  such  an  excel 
lent  memory,  that  what  he  composed  in  private  he  was  able  to  repeat  without 
notes  in  the  very  same  words  he  made  use  of  at  first.  He  employed  this  nat 
ural  advantage  with  so  much  readiness  that  he  not  only  recalled  whatever  he 
had  written  or  premeditated  himself,  but  he  remembered  everything  that  had 
been  said  by  his  opponents,  without  auy  notes.  He  was  inflamed  with  such  a 
passionate  fondness  for  the  profession  that  I  never  saw  any  one  who  took 
more  pains  to  improve  himself;  for  he  would  not  suffer  a  day  to  elapse  with 
out  either  speaking  in  the  forum  or  composing  something  at  home,  and  very 
often  he  did  both  on  the  same  day.  He  had,  besides,  a  turn  of  expression  which 
was  far  from  being  lax  and  unelevated,  and  possessed,  too,  other  accomplish 
ments  in  which  no  one  could  equal  him ;  an  uncommon  clearness  and  accuracy 
in  stating  the  points  he  was  to  speak  to  ;  and  a  neat  and  easy  manner  of  col 
lecting  the  substance  of  what  had  been  said  by  his  antagonist  and  by  himself. 
He  had,  likewise,  an  elegant  choice  of  words,  an  agreeable  flow  in  his  periods, 
a  copious  elocution,  with  a  sweet  and  sonorous  voice,  which  he  was  partly 
indebted  for  to  a  fine  natural  capacity,'aud  partly  acquired  by  the  most  labo 
rious  rhetorical  exercises.  In  short,  he  had  a  most  retentive  view  of  his  sub 
ject,  and  always  divided  and  parceled  it  out  with  the  greatest  exactness ;  and 
he  very  seldom  overlooked  anything  which  the  case  could  suggest  that  was 
proper  either  to  support  his  own  allegations,  or  to  refute  those  of  his  oppo 
nents. 

Thus  over  a  period  of  twenty  centuries, — thanks  to  the  art  of 
printing  and  the  historic  continuity  of  civilization, — we  may  not 
only  compare  systems  of  jurisprudence  and  the  progress  of  nations 
as  a  whole,  but  note  the  individual  actors  in  far  distant  scenes,  and 
know  that  the  race  of  man  does  not  degenerate.  So  well  known 
were  these  great  and  rare  qualities  of  Mr.  CARPENTER  that  at  a 
time  of  great  public  embarrassment  and  difficulty,  and  before  he 
had  demonstrated  in  the  Senate  his  eminence  in  affairs  as  well  as  in 
law,  he  was  called  from  Wisconsin  to  Washington  in  1867  by  Mr. 
Stanton,  then  Secretary  of  War,  to  aid  by  his  counsel  in  consulta 
tion,  as  well  as  by  argument  in  the  Supreme  Court,  in  upholding 
the  provisions  Congress  had  thought  it  necessary  to  make  concern 
ing  the  rehabilitation  of  the  States  then  lately  in  rebellion.  From 
that  time  to  his  death  he  was,  I  think  it  probable,  concerned  in 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  DAVIS,  OF  ILLINOIS.  35 

more  of  the  very  ini|X)rtant  litigation  in  the  courts  than  any  other 
one  man.  In  the  Senate,  also,  he  bore  a  leading  and  justly  con 
spicuous  part  in  measures  of  national  policy,  and  his  tireless  mind 
always  brought  forth  to  us  from  its  abundant  storehouse  treasures 
of  learning  and  reason,  and  his  clear,  strong,  sweet  voice  and  the 
InMiity  of  his  diction  always  wrapt  us  in  silence  and  attention. 
But  I  must  suspend. 

In  an  acquaintance  of  more  than  thirty  years  and  an  intimacy  of 
nearly  fifteen  we  never  had  an  unfriendly  feeling  or  dispute,  and  I 
never  received  from  him  a  word  hurtful  or  unkind.  His  few 
human  faults  I  forget,  as  I  would  wish  my  own  to  be  forgotten. 
Peace  to  his  great  soul.  I  mourn  him  as  a  brother — and  he  was 
my  brother,  for  he  was  the  son  of  our  common  mother,  Vermont, 
who  cheerfully  gave  him,  as  she  has  so  many  of  her  children,  to 
build  up  States  like  herself  along  the  borders  of  the  great  lakes 
and  in  all  the  valleys  of  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi — 
republics  whose  rule  is  peace  and  justice,  aud  whose  free  prosperity 
has  become  a  beacon  for  the  world. 


Address  of  Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Illinois. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  The  history  of  the  life,  and  of  the  eminent 
career  of  our  departed  colleague,  and  friend,  has  been  well  told  by 
those  whose  particular  province  it  was  to  discharge  that  duly.  I 
come  sadly  to  drop  a  tear  upon  his  grave,  and  to  mingle  my  per 
sonal  sorrow  with  the  general  grief  at  his  taking  off. 

He  was  great;  he  was  gifted;  he  was  generous.  In  the  qualities 
that  adorn  human  nature,  none  excelled  him.  There  was  no  lurk 
ing  place  in  his  make-up  for  envy,  for  malice,  or  for  hatred.  It 
did  not  need  the  exercise  of  charity  for  him  to  forgive  injustice, 
nor  to  forget  ingratitude,  because  his  big  heart  overflowed  with 


36       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATT  RE  W  II.  CARPENTER. 

kindness.  He  could  not  treasure  up  wrong,  even  when  calumny 
assailed  him. 

Always  quick  with  sympathy,  and  with  succor,  his  hand  was  open 
to  soothe  distress,  to  aid  the  feeble,  and  to  answer  every  call  of 
friendship.  Who  ever  appealed  to  him  in  vain  for  relief,  or  for 
comWt  ?  If  he  had  a  weakness,  it  was  on  the  generous  side  of 
frail  humanity.  The  mere  name,  or  the  very  semblance  of  afflic 
tion,  touched  him  as  deeply  as  actual  suffering. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  was  neither  a  statesman,  nor  a  politician.  He 
was  pre-eminently  a  lawyer,  who  may  be  said  at  a  single  bound,  to 
have  leaped  into  the  front  rank  of  the  profession  which  he  loved, 
and  which  he  honored.  In  another  sphere,  it  was  my  privilege  to 
have  known,  long  before  his  national  fame  was  achieved,  how  well 
he  deserved  distinction,  and  how  certain  it  was  to  come  with  the 
first  opportunity. 

Endowed  with  fine  genius,  he  did  not  trust  to  natural  parts  for 
success.  As  a  laborious  and  faithful  student,  he  mastered  the  sci 
ence  of  the  law ;  he  stored  his  mind  with  large  learning ;  he  enriched 
it  with  culture,  and  he  trained  it  with  severe  discipline.  The  cause 
of  the  humblest  client,  found  his  counsel  as  true  and  as  earnest,  as 
that  which  gave  him  a  world-wide  renown. 

He  brought  into  the  Senate  the  habits  of  thought,  and  the  pro 
cesses  of  reasoning,  which  had  become  a  second  nature  in  his  pro 
fessional  life.  All  his  speeches  were  arguments.  No  shackles  of 
party  could  fetter  an  intellect,  which  was  self-asserting  in  its  inde 
pendence,  and  which  always  rejoiced  in  a  free  atmosphere. 

The  pleasing  presence,  the  graceful  manners,  the  hearty  welcome, 
the  confiding  friendship,  and  the  warm  nature  of  our  late  brother, 
are  now  gathered  like  beautiful  flowers  around  his  coffin.  We  who 
are  left  to  mourn  over  his  loss,  will  long  cherish  their  perfume  in 
our  memories.  In  the  very  prime  of  life,  with  a  grand  future 
opening  out  before  him,  he  was  snatched  away. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR,  DAVIS,  OF  ILLINOIS.  37 

We  all  know  of  his  shining  characteristics;  but  only  few  know 
of  the  moral  heroism  which  bore  him  through  the  long  struggle 
that  ended  in  death.  For  more  than  a  year  before  the  dread  sum 
mons  came,  he  may  be  said  to  have  counted  every  pulsation  of  his 
fleeting  life.  He  studied  the  scientific  tests  that  revealed  the  inev 
itable  doom,  with  the  calmness  of  a  philosopher  in  search  of  knowl 
edge,  as  day  by  day  the  passage  shortened,  and  the  gloomy  goal 
loomed  up  a  stern  reality.  What  courage  in  the  field  of  battle 
compares  with  this  heroism  of  the  closet?  Who  that  saw  him  here 
in  the  last  Senatorial  scenes,  stricken,  it  is  true,  in  look,  and  his 
elasticity  shattered,  but  joyous  in  greeting,  fervid  in  utterance,  and 
his  mind  flashing  with  brightness,  could  have  supposed  that  he  car 
ried  with  him  the  secret  sentence  of  an  early  grave?  No  outward 
sign  told  of  that  impending  calamity. 

To  us,  who  are  more  aged  than  the  lamented  Senator  was,  this 
lesson  speaks  with  the  strongest  admonition.  But  to  all,  young  as 
well  as  old,  it  is  notice  to  prepare  for  that  future,  which  the  sublime 
mercy  of  God  has  reserved  for  well-spent  live-. 

I  move  the  adoption  of  the  pending  resolutions. 

The  PRESIDING  OFFICER.  The  question  is  on  the  adop 
tion  of  the  resolutions  presented  by  the  Senator  from  Wisconsin 
[Mr.  Cameron]. 

The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously ;  and  (at  one  o'clock 
and  forty  minutes  p.  m.)  the  Senate  adjourned. 


'ROCEEDIXGS  IN  THE  HOUSE  ()1J  REPRESENTATIVES. 


IN  THK  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

January  25,  1882. 

DEATH  OF  HON.  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

A  message  from  the  Senate,  by  Mr.  Sympson,  one  of  its  clerks, 
communicated  to  the  House  the  resolutions  of*  the  Senate  on  the 
announcement  of  the  death  of  Hon.  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER, 
late  a  Senator  of  the  United  States  from  the  State  of  Wisconsin. 

The  resolutions  were  read,  as  follows: 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  has  heard,  with  profound  sorrow,  of  the  death  of 
Hon.  MATTHKW  II.  CARPENTER,  late  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Wisconsin, 
and  extends  to  his  afflicted  family  sincere  sympathy  and  condolence  in  their 
bereavement. 

Resolved,  That,  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  Mr. 
CARPENTER,  the  regular  business  of  the  Senate  be  now  suspended  in  order 
that  his  former  associates  in  this  body  may  pay  fitting  tribute  to  his  memory. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  be  directed  to  transmit  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased,  and  also  to  the  Governor  of  Wisconsin,  a  certified  copy 
of  these  resolutions,  with  a  statement  of  the  action  of  the  Senate  thereon. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  communicate  these  resolutions 
to  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Revolved,  That,  as  a  further  testimonial  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  de 
ceased  Senator,  the  Senate  do  now  adjourn. 

Mr.  WILLIAMS,  of  Wisconsin.     Mr.  Speaker,  I  submit  the 
resolutions  which  I  send  to  the  Clerk's  desk. 
The  Clerk  read  as  follows: 

Resolved,  That  the  House  of  Representatives  has  received  with  profound 
sorrow  the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Hon.  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER, 
late  a  United  States  Senator  from  the  State  of  Wisconsin. 

Resolved,  That  the  business  of  the  House  be  now  suspended  that  opportunity 
may  be  given  for  fitting  tributes  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased  and  to  his 
public  and  private  worth. 

Resolved,  That,  as  a  further  mark  of  respect,  the  House,  at  the  conclusion 
of  such  remarks,  shall  adjourn. 

39 


40       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 


Address  of  Mr.  WILLIAMS,  of  Wisconsin. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  On  the  morning  of  the  24th  of  February  last, 
at  his  residence  on  Connecticut  avenue,  in  Washington,  at  forty- 
five  minutes  past  nine  o'clock,  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER  died. 
It  so  chanced  that  with  others  I  spent  the  night  at  his  bedside  and 
saw  him  breathe  his  last.  I  am  aware  that  the  scenes  of  the  death- 
chamber  are  sacred,  not  to  be  drawn  upon  for  mere  dramatic  effect, 
but  there  were  incidents  connected  with  this  one  which  I  think 
more  fully  portray  the  characteristics  of  the  deceased  than  volumes 
of  eulogy  could  do.  I  was  told  that  some  short  time  before  he  had 
wandered  slightly  in  his  mind,  and  in  his  dreams  fancied  himself 
back  among  his  Vermont  hills  again ;  that  he  spoke  tenderly,  even 
plaintively,  of  his  mother,  who  died  when  he  was  a  mere  lad,  and 
then  for  minutes  together  he  would  fall  into  deep  an'd  fervent 
prayer.  But  011  this  last  night  his  brain  was  clear  and  his  lion-like 
nature  never  more  strongly  asserted  itself. 

He  had  been  told  by  his  physicians  that  the  end  was  near,  yet, 
with  that  dauntless  courage  which  never  forsook  him,  he  came  up 
to  meet  the  final  sentence  under  which  he  had  knowingly  walked 
for  the  last  year  and  a  half,  but  had  never  mentioned  to  his  most 
trusted  friend.  As  the  shadow  deepened  and  he  began  to  sink,  his 
devoted  wife  clung  to  him  on  the  one  side,  while  on  the  other  was 
his  loving  daughter,  and  above  them  the  pale  face  of  his  young 
son.  I  noticed  that  the  daughter  invariably  addressed  him  as  "my 
boy ! "  and  when  near  the  last  she  would  say :  "  Do  you  know  me, 
my  boy?"  His  great  eyes  would  open  and  in  a  voice  modulated 
only  by  affection  he  woulcl  reply :  "  Why,  of  course  I  do  ! "  and 
when  the  wife  made  the  same  inquiry,  always  addressing  him  by  the 
familiar  and  endearing  term,  "  Matt,"  the  response  was  the  same.  At 
one  time,  near  midnight,  when  the  attending  physician  had  persuaded 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.    WILLIAMS,  OF  WISCONSIN.  41 

the  family  to  retire  for  awhile,  and  himself  was  seeking  needed 
rest,  I  was  left  in  the  room  with  no  one  but  the  colored  man,  Rob 
ert,  who  told  me,  in  a  voice  stifled  with  emotion,  that  he  had  been 
the  Senator's  body  servant  for  twelve  years  and  more.  Having 
occasion  to  go  to  the  parlors  below,  and  returning  before  I  was  ex 
pected,  a  most  impressive  scene  met  my  view.  The  light  was  low; 
the  Senator  was  sleeping.  The  thick  silver  locks  fell  back  from 
his  massive  forehead.  Near  him  on  the  carpet  was  the  pile  of  law 
books  which  he  had  ordered  from  his  office  and  studied  in  his  last 
case,  while  at  the  foot  of  the  bed  the  colored  man,  Robert,  knelt 
in  silent  prayer ! 

This,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  fact,  not  fancy,  and  it  tells  the  whole  story. 
Intellect  of  the  highest  mold,  mastery  of  the  profoundest  prin 
ciples,  and  kindness  and  love  for  the  humblest  of  God's  creatures 
were  the  grand  characteristics  of  Wisconsin's  dead  Senator. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  was  born  at  Moretown,  Vermont,  December  22, 
1824.  He  was  the  eldest  son  of  Ira  and  Anne  Carpenter.  With 
the  perversity  and  persistence  of  all  popular  fallacies,  the  impres 
sion  is  wide-spread  that  Mr.  CARPENTER  came  from  a  very  humble 
parentage,  whereas  the  fact  is  that  his  father  and  grandfather  were 
both  versed  in  the  law  and  attained  considerable  local  distinction 
in  their  profession,  especially  the  grandfather,  Cephas  Carpenter, 
who  is  said  to  have  been  a  man  of  powerful  physique,  possessing 
?nany  of  the  striking  characteristics  so  marked  in  his  gifted  grand 
son.  The  father  was  slight  in  stature  and  methodical  in  all  his 
ways,  while  through  the  Senator's  whole  life  there  ran  a  low  lament 
for  that  blonde  and  spirttuclle  mother  beside  whose  coffin  he  stood  at 
the  tender  age  of  nine  years. 

These  are  the  elements  whence  came  those  wonderful  powers  and 
that  matchless  logic  and  eloquence  which  moved  men,  captivated 
juries,  convinced  courts,  commanded  senates !  He  did  indeed,  sir, 
walk  with  the  port  and  majesty  of  a  king,  but  he  bore  around  with 


42       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

him  a  heart  as  tender  as  a  child's,  and  a  disposition  as  sweet  and 
gentle  as  a  mother's  love. 

The  details  of  his  early  life  need  not  be  dwelt  upon.  At  the  age 
of  twelve  years  he  was  adopted  into  the  family  of  Hon.  Paul  Dil- 
lingham,  of  Vermont,  by  whom  he  was  carefully  educated,  and 
whose  daughter  he  subsequently  married.  Thus,  under  the  same 
roof,  he  found  the  guiding  hand  of  a  noble  father  and  the  cheerful 
smile  of  a  devoted  wife.  In  1843  and  1844  he  was  a  cadet  in  the 
Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  where  he  made  rapid  progress, 
especially  in  the  languages.  But  the  dry  details  of  tactics  had  little 
charm  for  him,  and  at  the  end  of  two  years  he  left  the  academy, 
returned  to  Vermont,  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at 
Montpelier.  Rightly  judging  that  mere  theoretical  study  was  of 
little  avail  without  the  advantages  of  practical  experience  in  an 
office,  he  resolved  to  pursue  his  studies  in  that  direction,  and,  with 
the  unerring  instinct  which  never  forsook  him,  if  he  chose  at  all  he 
would  choose  the  best. 

Making  his  way  to  Boston,  he  boldly  applied  to  Rufus  Choate 
for  a  place  in  his  office.  It  is  said  that  the  great  lawyer  was 
impressed  by  the  manly  appearance  of  the  youthful  applicant,  and 
inquired  of  his  head  clerk  if  there  was  room  in  the  front  office  for 
another  student.  On  being  informed  that  there  was  not,  he  ordered 
a  table  to  be  placed  in  his  own  private  office,  and  set  young  CAR 
PENTER  to  work.  Half  by  way  of  a  test  and  half  by  way  of  a 
joke,  before  leaving  for  court  he  handed  the  young  student  a  letter 
to  answer  from  a  country  attorney  asking  Mr.  Choate's  opinion 
upon  a  question  of  law.  Young  CARPENTER  worked  diligently 
all  day,  embodying  the  result  of  his  work  in  a  carefully  prepared 
letter  to  the  correspondent.  What  was  Mr.  Choate's  surprise  on 
his  return  to  find  that  the  letter  contained  the  very  epitome  of  the 
law,  stated  in  the  clearest  and  concisest  terms.  Reading  it  care 
fully  over  a  second  time  he  said :  "I  guess  I  can  put  'R.  Choate'  to 


ADDRESS  OF  MIL    WILLIAMS,  OF  WISCONSIN.  43 

the  end  of  that  and  tell  the  fellow  to  send  me  a  hundred  dollars." 
The  name  was  attached,  the  letter  sent,  and  the  money  quickly 
returned.  From  that  hour  young  CARPENTER  was  ingratiated 
into  the  affection  and  favor  of  his  illustrious  patron,  and,  through 
all  the  dark  hours  that  followed,  the  sun  of  that  great  friendship 
was  never  clouded. 

In  1848  he  took  up  his  residence  at  Beloit,  Wisconsin,  now  a 
young  and  thrifty  city,  but  then  more  like  a  New  England  village. 
Mr.  CARPENTER  entered  no  obscure  western  hamlet,  as  has  l>een  so 
often  said,  but  mingled  at  once  with  the  highest  social  refinement, 
and  met  at  the  bar  some  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of  the  Northwest. 
He  soon  became  afflicted  with  inflammation  of  the  eyes,  and  was 
totally  blind  for  two  years.  Going  to  New  York  City  for  treat 
ment,  he  met  with  an  experience  which  borders  on  the  sensational. 
He  had  exhausted  all  his  means,  and,  being  blind  and  among 
strangers,  had  prepared  and  expected  to  go  to  the  county  house  the 
next  day,  when  that  night  the  long  expected  and  mysteriously 
delayed  draft  from  Mr.  Choate  came  to  hand,  and  let  light,  if 
not  into  his  eyes,  into  his  heart  and  soul.  Again  returning  to 
the  West  and  regaining  his  eyesight,  he  entered  actively  upon  the 
practice  of- his  profession.  Though  a  Democrat  of  the  straightest 
sect,  he  was  elected  prosecuting  attorney  in  a  county  overwhelm 
ingly  Whig.  From  votes  claimed  to  be  irregular,  the  certificate 
and  office  were  given  to  his  opponent.  Nothing  daunted,  he 
brought  suit  in  the  supreme  court,  conducted  his  own  case,  and  not 
only  obtained  the  office,  but  by  his  masterly  argument  drew  to  him 
self  the  attention  of  the  tanch  and  bar  of  the  entire  State.  Thence 
forth  his  progress  in  his  profession  was  a  triumphal  march. 

A  distinguished  lawyer  in  the  West  once  said  that  CARPENTER 
might  not  be  the  greatest  lawyer  that  ever  lived,  but  certainly  no 
other  man  was  ever  born  who  could  go  into  court,  take  possession 
of  judge,  jury,  witnesses,  opposite  counsel,  all,  and  drive  where  he 


44       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  II.  CARPENTER. 

pleased  as  MATT.  CAEPENTER  could.  He  was  a  strict  construc- 
tionist  of  the  Constitution,  and,  as  I  have  said,  a  Democrat  inborn. 
His  reverence  for  that  sacred  instrument  amounted  to  a  devotion, 
and  he  believed  any  deviation  from  its  strictest  letter  and  spirit, 
however  slight,  would  loosen  the  foundations  of  the  republic.  He 
lacked  no  sympathy  for  the  oppressed,  but  believed  that  in  the 
imperfection  of  human  affairs  the  individual  wrong  should  succumb 
to  the  greater  common  good.  A  leading  Senator  once  said  of  him : 
"  CARPENTER  is  too  great  a  lawyer  to  ever  become  a  great  states 
man."  In  a  qualified  sense  that  may  have  been  true. 

Whatever  he  saw,  he  saw  with  such  logical  clearness  that  he  had 
little  patience  to  bother  with  the  side-lights  of  whims  and  isms. 
He  spoke  right  out,  no  matter  what  the  mood  of  the  time,  and 
lacked  something  of  that  skill  which,  without  bating  one  jot  or 
tittle  of  principle,  humors  the  caprices  of  the  hour,  molds  the  non- 
essentials  of  the  situation,  and  finally  wields  them  as  a  positive 
power  in  the  accomplishment  of  practical  results.  The  radical 
difficulty  with  Mr.  CARPENTER  and  his  political  school  was  the 
belief  that  human  agreements  once  made  could  outlast  all  the 
changes  of  human  conditions  and  all  the  demands  of  human  prog 
ress.  He  forgot  that  "  blood  is  thicker  than  water, "  and  that  man 
is  but  puny  when  he  buffets  the  torrent  of  events ;  that  his  writs 
of  law  are  but  ropes  of  sand  in  the  presence  and  movements  of 
those  mighty  forces  which  must  be  peaceably  composed  or  they  will 
upheave  nations  and  overthrow  empires.  But  the  open  blow  of 
rebellion  brought  Mr.  CARPENTER  to  his  feet.  His  deity,  the 
Constitution,  had  been  assaulted,  and  the  love  he  bore  it  but  added 
flame  to  his  fierceness.  From  that  hour  he  placed  patriotism  above 
party,  and  the  great  law  of  self-defense  above  all  written  constitu 
tions,  and  from  that  high  political  Sinai  there  came  a  voice  that 
filled  all  our  Badger  State  and  sent  thousands  of  her  sons  marching 
forth  to  battle. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.   WILLIAMS,  OF  WISCONSIN.  45 

Few  specimens  of  Mr.  CARPENTER'S  eloquence  of  that  time  have 
been  preserved,  but  surely  never  have  our  people  lx>en  so  moved 
and  thrilled  by  mortal  voice!  The  following  will  afford  a  glimpse 
of  the  patriotic  fire  which  filial  his  soul.  At  a  great  war  meeting 
in  Milwaukee  he  said  : 

Nearly  forty  years  of  profound  public  tranquillity  have  passed  over  and 
blessed  our  laud.  Wo  have  forgotten  to  use  the  weapons  of  war  and  have 
cultivated  the  arts  of  peace.  We  have  engrossed  our  thoughts  and  enlisted 
our  hearts  in  the  pursuits  of  agriculture,  manufactures,  and  commerce,  and 
advancing  the  arts  and  sciences  most  useful  to  man. 

No  nation  lias  been  so  blessed — none  lias  so  prospered.  While  we  have  thus 
been  improving  all  our  mutual  interests,  amassing  wealth  at  home  and  accu 
mulating  honors  abroad,  other  nations  have  been  vexed  and  worried  with  the 
"  dogs  of  war";  the  war-cloud  has  darkened  the  sunny  sky  of  Italy  ;  armies 
have  trampled  the  vine-clad  fields  of  France,  and  the  recruiting  drum  has 
been  heard  on  the  green  hills  and  sweet  valleys  of  Merry  England.  *  *  * 
Wo  hang  out  our  banner;  no  dusty  rag  representing  the  twilight  of  seven 
stars,  but  the  old  banner  that  has  lloated  triumphantly  in  every  breeze  ;  the 
banner  Decatnr  unfurled  to  the  Barbary  States ;  that  Jackson  held  over  New 
Orleans;  that  Scott  carried  to  the  Halls  of  the  Montezumas;  and  thereby  wo 
mean  to  say,  in  no  spirit  of  defiance,  but  with  the  firmness  of  manly  resolu 
tion,  this  flag  shall  wave  while  an  American  lives  to  protect  it. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  vaulted  at  once  from  the  bar  to  the  Senate,  and 
the  story  of  his  subsequent  career  is  written  in  one  of  the  most  im 
portant  epochs  of  American  history.  Always  choosing  the  fore 
most  man  for  an  opponent,  his  advent  into  the  Senate  was  marked 
by  a  bold  challenge  to  Charles  Sumner  for  open  combat.  Well 
might  Mr.  Sumner  have  looked  with  contempt  upon  the  temerity 
of  this  young  fledgling  from  the  West,  but  no  sooner  had  the  de 
bate  opened  than  he  discovered,  like  Fitz-James  of  old : 

No  maiden's  hand  is  round  thee  thrown ! 
That  desperate  grasp  thy  frame  might  feel, 
Through  bars  of  brass  and  triple  steel ! 

And  though  smarting  with  wounds  just  received,  the  great  Massachu 
setts  statesman  had  the  magnanimity  to  say  that  the  mantle  of  Daniel 
Webster  had  fallen  upon  this  young  Senator  from  Wisconsin. 

Since  his  death  a  leading  Eastern  journal,  by  no  means  friendly 
to  Mr.  CARPENTER,  has  said  that  while  the  above  was  a  common 


4G        LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

and  easy  thing  to  say,  it  came  nearer  being  true  in  this  case  than  in 
most  others.  Another  leading  journal  of  the  East,  noted  for  the 
candor  of  its  statements,  says : 

With  perhaps  two  exceptions,  no  genius  so  steady,  no  intellect  so  sustained 
as  CARPENTER'S  has  been  known  in  any  sphere  of  American  public  life  since 
the  death  of  Jefferson  and  Hamilton.  We  think,  indeed,  in  the  rare  quality 
of  oratory  CARPENTER  will  be  ranked  with  such  'master  minds  as  Burke  and 
Macaulay. 

But  it  was  not  from  the  graces  of  speech  that  Mr.  CARPENTER 
won  his  most  enduring  fame.  Men  like  Judge  Black,  Reverdy 
Johnson,  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  and  others  equally  eminent,  have  as 
signed  him  a  place  among  the  foremost  American  lawyers  and 
statesmen.  All  agree  that  in  his  argument  in  the  celebrated  Mc- 
Ardle  case  he  mapped  out  the  whole  plan  of  reconstruction  which 
was  subsequently  adopted  and  followed.  The  prediction  may  well 
be  made  that  since  the  death  of  Daniel  Webster  the  speeches  of  no 
man  on  constitutional  law  will  be  read  with  more  care  than  those 
of  Mr.  CARPENTER.  He  gave  little  heed  to  appearances,  and  in 
many  things  was  most  singularly  misunderstood.  The  impression 
widely  prevailed,  especially  among  those  who  did  not  know  him 
personally,  that  he  was  light  and  frivolous ;  that  he  trusted  to  his 
genius,  and  lacked  industry.  Why,  sir,  no  more  industrious  man 
lived  than  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER.  He  trusted  nothing  to  im 
pulse.  I  remember  hearing  him  say  that  in  preparing  a  short  letter 
for  publication  on  the  subject  of  legislative  control  of  railroads,  he 
commenced  the  letter  before  the  gas  was  lighted  in  the  evening, 
worked  continuously  through  the  night,  and  only  finished  it  after 
the  gas  was  turned  out  in  the  morning.  And  this  letter,  sir,  was  the 
acorn  planted  in  a  night  which  thereafter,  in  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  grew  to  a  mighty  oak.  He  trusted  nothing  to 
chance.  He  explored  all  possible  sources  of  information,  and  was 
never  satisfied  until  he  had  probed  his  subject  to  the  bottom. 

It  was  thus  that  frequently  in  the  merry  twinkle  of  his  humor 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.   WILLIAMS,  O/-'  WISCONSIN.  47 

he  would  start  questions  in  the  Senate  which  his  brother  Senators 
would  at  first  treat  as  fanciful,  but  no  sooner  had  they  grappled 
with  him  in  debate  than  they  discovered  that  it  was  they  and  not 
he  who  required  time  for  study  and  reflection.  Notably  was  this 
the  case  in  one  of  his  last  speeches  delivered  in  the  Senate,  relating 
to  the  jurisdiction  of  consular  courts.  Another  false  impression 
was  that  he  was  careless  in  business,  and  his  own  self-criticism  often 
gave  color  to  the  belief.  Yet  the  fact  was  that  he  made  a  state 
ment  to  his  family  at  the  end  of  each  month,  and  his  business  affairs 
were  no  more  confused  when  he  died  than  his  intellectual  processes 
were  while  he  lived.  Such  was  his  promptitude  in  meeting  pecu 
niary  obligations  that  at  no  time  after  he  arrived  at  manhood  would 
his  check  be  dishonored  at  any  bank  where  he  was  known. 

As  for  his  personal  and  official  integrity  his  former  law  partner 
at  Milwaukee  relates  the  following: 

While  sitting  with  him  in  his  private  office  in  Washington  one  morning 
before  the  Senate  convened,  a  gentleman  walked  in,  and,  handing  his  card  to 
Mr.  CARPENTER,  stated  that  he  wished  to  retain  him  in  a  case  then  pending 
in  the  Supreme  Court,  and  laying  down  a  §5,000.  check,  payable  to  Mr.  CAR 
PENTER'S  order,  remarked  that  on  the  following  Wednesday  ho  would  call 
and  pay  him  another  $5,000.  He  casually  observed  that  two  other  eminent 
lawyers,  whom  he  named,  would  argue  the  case,  and  he  would  not  need  to 
participate  in  the  argument.  The  last  remark  attracted  Mr.  CARPENTER'S 
attention,  and  he  requested  the  gentleman  to  take  his  $5,000  check  with  him, 
and  if  he  concluded  to  accept  a  retainer  he  could  pay  the  whole  when  he 
called  again.  The  next  week  the  gentleman  returned  with  a  check  for  $10,000. 
]$ut  in  the  mean  time  it  had  been  ascertained  that  the  proffered  client  had  a 
claim  for  $398,000  against  the  government  then  pending  before  the  Senate  and 
referred  to  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  that  body,  and  then  referred  to  a  sub 
committee,  of  which  Mr.  CA'RPENTER  was  chairman.  The  result  was  that  his 
retainer  was  declined,  with  a  sharp  lecture  upon  the  subject  of  retaining 
lawyers  and  paying  them  large  fees  for  doing  nothing.  Subsequently  the 
claim  of  this  gentleman  was  investigated  in  committee,  and  Mr.  CARPENTER 
made  a  report  against  the  bill,  which  was  defeated  in  the  Senate. 

I  have  thus  referred,  though  imperfectly,  to  some  of  the  leading 
incidents  of  Mr.  CARPENTER'S  life,  purposely  leaving  to  others  the 
more  congenial  duty  of  paying  fitting  tribute  to  his  memory.  Our 
loved  and  lamented  CARPENTER  is  dead.  His  merry  laugh  is 


48       LIVE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

hushed  in  the  grave.  His  silvery  voice  will  be  heard  no  more 
forever !  The  vacancy  his  loss  creates  in  our  State  can  never  be 
filled.  He  was  the  pet  and  idol  of  our  people.  They  knew  his 
virtues,  and  could  forgive  his  faults.  No  man  was  ever  followed 
to  the  grave  by  all  the  people  with  more  unaffected  grief  than  he. 
The  memory  and  the  light  of  three  great  intellects  shine  over  the 
waters  of  our  inland  seas — Garfield  at  Cleveland,  Douglas  at  Chi 
cago,  and  CARPENTER  at  Milwaukee.  There  let  them  rest !  As 
the  old  Green  Mountain  State  looks  westward  over  hill  and  plain, 
she  can  say,  with  welling  pride,  "Yonder  on  the  border  of  those 
waters  sleep  two  of  my  most  illustrious  sons;  illustrious  in  life, 
immortal  in  death!  They  revered  the  Constitution;  they  adored 
their  country ! " 

Mr.  Speaker,  on  the  10th  of  April  last,  along  country  roads, 
through  drifted  snows,  we  bore  the  remains  of  our  loved  Senator 
to  their  last  resting-place.  There  let  him  sleep,  and  let  the  Western 
poet  bespeak  our  tribute  and  our  grief: 

O'er  western  plains  the  snow  is  swept  and  sifted; 

The  wind's  wild  wail  is  borne  along  the  air; 
The  forests  groan,  the  highways  deep  are  drifted ; 

The  ridges  all  are  bare. 

Cold  comes  the  arctic  wave;  the  sun  is  hidden 
From  human  sight  by  cheerless  clouds  of  gray ; 

From  the  far  north  the  storm-king  comes  unbidden 
To  greet  us  day  by  day. 

By  glowing  grates  within  the  snow-bound  city, 
By  blazing  farm-house  fires;  in  woodman's  shed, 

Men's  voices  whisper  with  regret  and  pity, 
"  Wisconsin's  chief  is  dead ! " 

He  sleeps  to-day  the  sleep  that  knows  no  waking; 

Ho  goes,  with  folded  hands  upon  his  breast, 
Just  as  the  morning  clouds  of  peace  are  breaking, 

To  his  eternal  rest. 

Grand  was  his  work,  and  wise  the  legislation 
He  helped  to  fashion  with  his  brilliant  mind. 

When  may  we  find,  in  all  this  gifted  nation, 
A  heart  more  brave  and  kind? 


ADDRESS  01'  MR.  KASSON,  OF  IOWA.  41) 


Address  of  Mr.  KASSON,  of  Iowa. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  There  are  two  opposite  civilizations  whose  gates 
are  always  open  to  the  progress  of  talent,  of  genius,  and  of  ambition. 
One  of  these  is  in  the  far  east,  where  the  monarch,  loving  his  ease, 
welcomes  any  talent  which  fills  his  treasury,  and  the  statecraft  which 
directs  his  armies  to  conquest  or  relieves  him  from  tfre  burdens  of 
administration.  There  the  imagination  of  all  classes  is  full  of 
dreams  of  wealth  and  power  to  be  gained  by  the  arts  of  intrigue, 
and  the  utmost  strength  of  the  human  intellect  is  directed  to  seize 
and  control  the  threads  of  influence  which  center  in  the  one  man  who 
possesses  the  throne  and  is  the  fountain  of  prosperity.  In  this 
struggle,  freemen  and  slaves  alike  take  part,  and  both  have  made 
themselves  illustrious  in  eastern  history.  The  Hebrew  boy  who 
was  carried  into  Egypt  as  a  slave  became  its  ruler,  and  the  gladia 
tor  who  fought  in  the  arena  at  Rome  became  its  emperor. 

In  this  far  west  and  in  this  New  World  we,  more  fortunate,  enjoy 
the  other  of  these  civilizations.  Talent,  ambition,  genius  arc  not 
here  directed  to  the  winning  of  one  single,  weak,  human  intellect. 
Their  power  must  be  great  enough  to  inclose  millions  in  its  grasp. 
No  personal  contact  can  here  win  the  favor  of  the  throne  to  which 
they  aspire.  They  triumph  only  by  the  force  of  intellectual  quali 
ties  so  strong  and  so  brilliant  that  they  illuminate  the  masses  of 
men  like  rays  from*  the  sun.  Tinder  their  influence  mankind  feels 
a  new  joy  as  it  acknowledges  and  welcomes  a  leader  of  men.  No 
where  on  the  globe  is  intellectual  greatness  more  highly  appreciated 
than  in  America.  The  stimulus  to  its  development,  found  in  listen 
ing  crowds  of  all  degrees  of  education  and  of  all  ranks  of  society, 
is  far  more  powerful  and  of  higher  motive  than  that  found  in  any 
single  fountain  of  honor,  though  it  flow  from  the  foot  of  a  throne. 

When  that  son  of  Vermont  whose  unfinished  life  and  premature 
4c 


50       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

death  we  deplore  to-day  left  his  native  mountains  for  a  new  home, 
his  mind  was  already  disciplined  by  the  severe  mathematics  of  West 
Point  and  by  the  stern  logic  of  the  common  law.  His  manly  form, 
his  large  brow,  his  animated  eye  betokened  the  liberal  gifts  with 
which  nature  had  endowed  him.  For  a  year  he  lived  in  the  glow  of 
that  great  orator  and  lawyer  of  Massachusetts,  Rufus  Choate, 
whose  amazing  wealth  of  fancy  and  of  language  seemed  to  have 
fallen,  like  tbe  prophet's  mantle,  upon  the  opening  genius  of  his 
pupil.  Even  the  rigid  demands  of  closely  reasoned  law  could  not 
extinguish  in  him  the  play  of  imagination  and  the  flashes  of  his 
ready  wit.  Burke,  while  speaking  in  eulogy  of  a  great  English 
lawyer-statesman,  pauses  to  celebrate  the  logical  discipline  of  mind 
effected  by  the  lawyer's  profession,  but  condemns  it  in  the  admin 
istration  of  State  affairs  as  leading  to  technical  arts  and  narrowness 
of  intellect.  But  in  Senator  CARPENTER  it  only  exercised  a  whole 
some  restraint  over  the  exuberance  of  his  fancy  and  the  luxuriance 
of  his  intellectual  growth. 

Nature  and  study  had  equipped  this  child  of  the  mountains  for 
another  and  more  auspicious  scene  of  action.  A  compact  city  on 
the  shores  of  New  England,  whose  walks  of  life  were  full  of  mature 
men  already  in  possession  of  the  avenues  leading  to  professional 
success  and  distinction,  was  not  the  place  for  him.  He  left  the  older 
communities  of  the  East  and  sought  the  immature  and  growing 
West.  There  the  people  stood  not  in  serried  ranks,  but  in  open 
files.  There  mingled  emigrants  from  all  the  States  and  from  Europe. 
There  humanity  was  to  be  molded  into  effective  order,  and  all  forms 
of  superior  labor  could  win  the  open  harvest.  Industry,  patience, 
talent,  worth,  were  sure  of  early  appreciation  and  of  final  success ; 
and  he  was  not  disappointed. 

The  civilization  of  the  West  opened  its  gates  wide  to  the  ambi 
tion  of  the  young  lawyer  and  orator.  The  oriental  arts  of  intrigue 
and  adulation  had  here  no  place.  Instead  of  their  narrowing  effect, 


ADDRESS  OF  AIR.   CAStl'ELL,  OF  WISCONSIN.  51 

his  splendid  gifts  found  a  sphere  as  boundless  as  the  unbroken  hori 
zon  of  his  adopted  State.  Under  the  bountiful  nourishment  of  an 
appreciative  people  he  advanced  quickly  to  the  front  rank  of  men. 

In  the  Supreme  Court  and  in  the  Senate  his  intellectual  charac 
teristics  gave  him  an  exceptionally  brilliant  position.  lie  awakened 
the  sedateness  of  both  by  his  incisive  logic,  and  startled  each  in 
turn  by  pungent  satire  and  illuminating  wit.  In  his  presence  no 
circle  could  be  dull  and  no  audience  drowsy.  No  artifice  escaped 
his  perception  and  no  pretense  could  survive  his  assault.  Brave  in 
intellectual  fight,  he  nourished  no  bitterness  toward  his  foes.  Sym 
pathetic  in  nature,  warm  in  friendship,  brilliant  in  intellect,  inde 
pendent  in  criticism,  generous  in  hostility,  glowing  in  oratory,  and 
distinguished  in  position,  for  a  full  year  he  was  obliged  to  look 
straight  into  the  face  of  coming  Death;  and  then  he  departed  in  the 
earlier  ripeness  of  his  rich  manhood. 

Mr.  Speaker,  there  is  unhappily  left  to  us,  his  former  friends  and 
colleagues  in  this  great  parliament  of  the  nation,  only  the  melan 
choly  satisfaction  of  laying  these  tributes  of  our  affection  and 
respect  upon  the  grave  in  which  his  ambitions  and  our  hopes  of 
him  alike  lie  buried. 


Address  of  Mr.  CASWELL,  of  Wisconsin. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  I  cannot  permit  this  occasion  to  pass  without 
adding  a  few  to  the  many  fit  and  proper  words  which  will  be  spoken 
here  to-day  upon  the  life  and  character  of  so  great  a  man  as  MAT 
THEW  HALE  CARPENTER.  It  was  my  good  fortune  for  some 
years  to  receive  advice  and  instruction  as  a  student  in  his  office, 
and  I  learned  to  know  the  man  and  his  great  worth  as  one  only  can 
know  who  saw  his  daily  walk  in  private  as  well  as  in  public  life. 
He  was  a  man  who  drew  after  him  a  friendship  which  did  not 
depart.  The  more  one  knew  of  his  traits  of  character  the  better 


52       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 

he  loved  him.  His  warm,  impulsive  nature,  his  generous  heart, 
and  great  fund  of  knowledge  drew  about  him  a  circle  of  acquaint 
ances  who  were  charmed  into  a  life-long  attachment.  When  I  first 
made  his  acquaintance  he  had  practiced  at  his  profession  only  two 
years,  but  he  had  already  gained  a  reputation  and  experience  seldom 
enjoyed  by  others  in  a  half  score  of  years. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  was  a  cadet  at  West  Point,  but  he  soon  found 
there  was  a  field  for  his  labors  more  adapted  to  his  nature  and  talents, 
and  where  his  brilliant  mind  could  find  unlimited  sway.  He  left 
the  Military  Academy  and  began  the  study  of  law,  first  with  Gov 
ernor  Dillingham,  of  Vermont,  and  lastly  with  New  England's  dis 
tinguished  lawyer  and  advocate,  Rufus  Choate.  He  went,  as  it 
were,  to  the  fountain-head  for  his  law  and  his  style  of  oratory. 
When  there,  he  imbibed  the  ambition  to  rival,  at  some  day,  even 
his  instructors.  It  was  the  pride  of  his  heart  to  be  placed  in 
history  alongside  of  Choate  and  Webster,  and  I  believe,  as  I  have 
heard  him  say,  while  yet  a  youth,  he  preferred  a  single  feather  from 
the  plume  those  men  wore  to  all  the  wealth  which  human  hands 
could  acquire. 

In  1848  Mr.  CARPENTER  completed  his  studies  and  obtained  ad 
mission  to  the  bar.  He  was  then  twenty-four  years  of  age.  The 
far  West  was  promising  homes  and  success  to  the  young  and  enter 
prising  men  then  stepping  into  active  life.  His  great  love  of  fel 
lowship,  his  admiration  of  the  people,  and  desire  to  grow  up  with 
them,  turned  his  footsteps  westward,  to  seek  honor  and  fame  among 
the  pioneers  of  Wisconsin.  He  settled  that  year  at  Beloit.  At 
once  he  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession,  with  an  indus 
try  seldom  witnessed. 

Not  content  with  American  or  local  authorities,  he  looked  to  a 
broader  and  more  comprehensive  discussion  of  the  common  law. 
He  went  to  the  Code  Justinian,  to  Coke  and  Littleton,  for  the  great 
fundamental  principles  which  should  underlie  and  control  the  ad- 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  CASWELL,  OF  WISCONSIN.  53 

judication  of  his  cases.  He  labored  hard  to  settle  the  law  of  his 
adopted  State  in  accordance  with  the  old  and  well-defined  rules  of 
the  common  law  of  England.  His  great  efforts  at  the  bar,  as  well 
as  in  the  Senate,  were  uniformly  strengthened  by  references  and 
api>euls  to  these  principles. 

With  his  learning  and  talent,  progress  was  most  easy  and  rapid, 
and  he  was  soon  an  acknowledged  leader  at  the  bar,  alongside  of 
the  ablest  lawyers  in  the  West.  He  not  only  loved  the  law  and 
studied  it  as  a  student  would  study,  but  he  sought  with  eagerness 
that  general  knowledge  which  is  found  in  miscellaneous  reading. 
Rare  passages  and  choice  thoughts,  beautifully  expressed,  were  se 
lected  and  committed  to  memory,  until  his  mind  became  a  store 
house  full  of  literary  treasures,  from  which  he  could  draw  at  will. 

With  a  mind  thus  enriched  he  would  turn  a  long  and  otherwise 
tedious  trial  into  one  of  life  and  interest.  His  persuasive  power 
and  easy  flow  of  language,  his  plain  expression  and  simple  style, 
made  him  an  advocate  who  carried  conviction  to  all  who  heard 
him.  In  a  conflict  he  was  like  a  majestic  lion  in  the  path  of  his 
adversary,  but  those  he  would  convince  he  approached  with  a  golden 
thread  of  truth  and  reason.  On  the  trial  of  a  cause  he  would 
concentrate  all  his  learning  and  ability,  and  with  masterly  skill 
wrestle  as  though  life  depended  upon  the  result.  In  his  client  and 
his  cause  he  firmly  believed,  and,  believing,  he  turned  not  aside, 
but  whatever  of  knowledge  or  tact  he  possessed  was  summoned  to 
his  aid  and  applied  with  marvelous  success. 

When  he  died  he  owed  nothing  to  the  bench  or  to  the  bar;  he 
had  not  taken  from,  but  had  added  to,  the  law;  always  aiding  the 
court  with  his  arguments  and  reason,  and  all  who  heard  him  list 
ened  with  profit.  His  briefs  and  labored  arguments  enlarged  upon 
and  extended  the  legacies  of  our  ablest  law-givers.  When  com 
mentaries,  lectures,  and  codes  were  exhausted;  when  neither  the 
civil  nor  the  common  law  could  reach  the  emergency  of  his  case, 


54       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

he  would  often  appeal  to  the  divine  teachings  of  Christ  and  the 
Apostles  as  the  true  source  of  all  that  was  good  and  wise. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  new  questions  arose,  involving  the  con 
dition  of  the  States  which  had  attempted  to  go  out  of  the  Union ; 
also  of  the  rights  of  the  people  residing  therein.  He  was  among 
the  first,  as  my  colleague  has  already  said,  to  devise  and  point  out 
a  plan  of  reconstruction.  He  believed  in  a  government  by  the 
people,  and  he  would  remand  the  citizens  of  those  States  as  soon  as 
possible  to  the  forms  of  self-government  according  to  the  letter  and 
spirit  of  the  Constitution.  His  plan  and  views  were  adopted  in 
the  main,  and  to  him  we  are  largely  indebted  for  the  settlement  of 
these  questions. 

Before  his  connection  with  this  subject  he  was  little  identified 
with  politics,  though  he  had  always  belonged  to  a  party,  and  was 
ready  when  occasion  required  to  assert  his  beliefs.  When  the  war 
broke  out  he  arose  above  all  parties  and  knew  only  his  country  and 
its  safety.  Whenever  and  wherever  the  government  was  assaulted 
he  was  ready  to  defend,  and  when  the  conflict  raged  fiercest  his 
voice  rang  out  through  the  land  from  the  east  to  the  west  in  sup 
port  of  the  party  that  could  best  save  the  Union. 

In  1868  he  took  a  seat  in  the  American  Senate. 

As  he  had  gained  distinction  at  the  bar  and  upon  the  stump,  so  he 
acquired  eminence  as  a  statesman  in  the  Senate.  He  found  there  a 
new  forum,  and  there  he  met  foemen  worthy  of  his  steel.  He  could 
there  speak,  not  for  a  single  client,  but  for  a  whole  nation.  He 
thus  became  possessed  of  that  which  few  enjoy,  eminence  as  a  law 
yer  and  statesman  combined.  Mr.  CARPENTER  was  noted  for  his 
social  qualities.  Though  possessed  of  a  courage  to  do  right,  he  was 
tender  of  the  feelings  and  opinions  of  even  his  adversary.  His 
generous  nature  would  not  permit  him  to  take  undue  advantage  of 
the  strong  or  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  weak.  For  the  poor,  his  pity 
and  sympathy  were  of  easy  touch.  His  forgiving  kindness  would 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  DUNNELL,  OF  MINNESOTA.  55 

well-nigli  murder  justice.  Charity  had  a  strong  abiding  place  in 
his  great  heart,  and  if  he  erred  at  all  it  was  in  obedience  to  her 
command*.  His  own  comfort  and  ease  was  his  last  thought.  For 
a  year  before  his  death  he  must  have  known  its  .silent  but  sure  ap 
proach.  This,  however,  detracted  nothing  from  his  wonted  cheer 
fulness,  and  those  who  knew  him  best  scarcely  discovered  his  fail 
ing  health,  certainly  not  his  dangerous  condition.  His  kind  treat 
ment  to  all,  and  his  merry  laugh,  continued  the  same  up  to  a  few 
days  before  his  death.  Each  day  he  greeted  his  friends  as  he  did 
in  the  morning  of  life.  He  concealed  his  sufferings  and  gradual 
dissolution  until  he  met  them  no  more.  To  the  very  last  his  mind 
retained  its  vigor,  never  wavering,  never  clouded.  We  cannot  realize 
how  death  can  hush  to  silence  so  much  at  one  stroke.  In  a  mo 
ment  of  time  that  great  soul  and  life  took  its  flight,  and  henceforth 
will  abide  with  us  no  more. 

But  I  must  pause.  The  virtues  of  the  man  need  no  attestation 
from  me.  They  are  known  where  he  was  known.  They  cannot 
be  disguised  or  hidden  from  sight,  but  like  the  stars  in  a  cloud 
less  night  they  will  continue  to 'shine  while  time  shall  last.  If 
we  would  praise  or  eulogize  him,  if  we  would  make  for  him  robes 
of  pearl,  we  could  do  no  better  than  recount  his  daily  walk. 


Address  of  Mr.  DUNNELL,  of  Minnesota. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  The  eminent  Senator  from  Wisconsin,  whose 
earthly  life  ended  amid  the  closing  days  of  the  last  Congress,  and 
to  honor  whose  name  and  memory  these  ceremonies  are  now  had, 
acquired  no  obscure  niche  in  the  temple  of  fame  dedicated  in  the 
public  mind  and  memory  to  a  record  of  the  men  who,  during  the 
period  of  our  national  existence,  have  given  conspicuous  honor  to 
the  professions  and  avocations  demanding  for  their  successful  prase- 


56       LIFE  AND  CHAEACTER  OF  MATTHEW  R.  CARPENTER. 

cution  great  talents  and  large  attainments.  The  name  of  MAT 
THEW  H.  CARPENTER  will  be  held  in  fresh  remembrance  by  this 
generation,  and  readily  bring  to  mind  the  brilliant  and  learned 
lawyer  and  orator.  His  speeches  from  the  rostrum,  and  the  floor 
of  the  Senate,  and  his  arguments  before  the  highest  courts  and  tri 
bunals  of  the  land,  will  long  hold  their  place  among  the  utterances 
of  the  great  men  to  which  time  brings  no  loss  of  attractiveness  or 
admiration. 

Senator  CARPENTER,  in  his  professional  and  public  career,  was 
abreast  with  the  first  men  of  his  time.  Death  had,  indeed,  too 
great  a  victory  when  it  took  him  from  the  stage  of  action.  Though 
it  made  its  inexorable  demands  and  fully  disclosed  its  relentless 
character,  yet  its  victory  was  only  that  the  grand  career  should 
terminate,  that  further  labors  and  other  triumphs  and  life  itself 
should  not  be,  yet  it  could  not  take  away  his  well-earned  fame. 
That  lives  and  will  live,  conquering  even  the  incursions  of  time. 

Death  makes  no  conquest  of  this  conqueror, 
For  now  he  lives  in  fame,  though  not  in  life. 

Others  can  better  dwell  upon  the  events  of  his  remarkable  life, 
and  have  already  done  so.  It  shall  be  mine,  in  a  few  sentences,  to 
seek  the  grounds  for  the  undisputed  place  he  had  in  the  public 
mind  when  death  came,  and  the  universal  esteem  and  love  in  which 
he  was  held  by  the  people  of  his  adopted  State. 

Those  who  heard  him  oftenest  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  bring  the  highest  tributes  to  his  profound  acquaint 
ance  with  the  first  principles  of  jurisprudence;  to  his  singularly 
acute,  ready,  and  logical  mind;  to  his  marvelous  power  of  labor 
and  research;  to  his  unerring  grasp  of  all  the  points  involved  in 
the  given  case,  and  to  his  rare  forensic  powers.  I  am  willing  that 
some  of  them  should  speak  for  him  here. 

When  the  bar  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  met 
in  the  court-room  on  Monday,  March  7,  1881,  to  pay  a  fitting 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  DUNNELL,  OF  MINNESOTA.  57 

tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased  brother,  Senator  Thurman 
said: 

It  might  socin  to  bo  almost  superfluous  to  say  to  this  audience  who  he  was 
and  what  ho  was.  Thoro  ia  perhaps  no  one  hero  to-day  who  has  not  witnessed 
some  one  or  more  of  those  remarkable  displays  of  forensic  eloquence  and  of 
legal  learning  for  which  ho  was  so  justly  distinguished.  There  are  but  few, 
if  any,  lawyers  in  the  Republic  who  have  not  heard  of  his  fame;  for  it  was  as 
widespread  as  the  continent. 

lion.  Jeremiah  S.  Black,  on  the  same  occasion,  in  a  speech  of 
great  beauty  and  tenderness  of  sentiment,  among  other  words,  said  : 

But  when  we  think  of  his  great  wisdom  and  wonderful  skill  in  the  forensic 
use  of  it,  together  with  his  other  qualities  of  mind  and  heart,  we  cannot  doubt 
that  in  his  left  hand  would  have  been  uncounted  riches  and  abundant  honor 
if  only  length  of  days  had  been  given  to  his  right.  As  it  was,  ho  distanced 
his  contemporaries  and  became  the  peer  of  the  greatest  among  those  who  had 
started  long  before  him.  The  flow  of  his  speech  was  steady  and  strong  as  the 
current  of  a  great  river.  Every  sentence  was  perfect;  every  word  was  fitly 
spoken ;  each  apple  of  gold  was  sot  in  its  picture  of  silver. 

Senator  Garland  said : 

This  is  not  an  ordinary  occasion,  and  it  excites  in  all  of  us  no  ordinary  feel 
ings,  for  we  have  met  hero  to  pay  the  last  honors  to  one  of  the  remarkable 
men  of  this  remarkable  age  and  this  remarkable  country. 

Attorney  Embry  said : 

In  his  professional  and  public  life  he  consecrated  himself  wholly  to  the  great 
work  before  him.  He  bowed  before  the  altar  of  duty,  lighted  by  the  torches 
of  resolution  and  fidelity,  and  made  his  physical  strength  a  martyr  to  his  in 
tellectual  energies.  Ho  cherished  a  sacred  reverence  for  the  Constitution  of 
his  country,  and,  as  an  American  Senator,  he  guarded  it  with  sleepless  vigi 
lance  as  the  only  pure  fountain  whose  living  streams  refresh,  invigorate,  and 
sustain  the  national  life.  In  law  he  was  an  artist,  like  Michael  Angelo  in 
virgin  marble,  who,  ''fashioning  the  dainti&st  forms  of  beauty,  handled  his 
chisel  and  his  mallet  as  if  he  were  hewing  a  pyramid." 

These  are  remarkable  testimonials,  and  from  men  high  in  public 
confidence. 

Senator  CARPENTER  was  loved  and  honored  by  the  people  of 
Wisconsin,  for  he  had  by  nature,  and  exhibited  them  in  daily  life, 
elements,  and  traits  of  character  which  always  bring  admirers  and 
followers.  He  was  sincere  and  truthful.  Conviction  pointed  out 


58       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

to  him  the  path  of  duty;  it  defined  the  obligations  which  he  should 
assume  and  discharge.  He  honestly  believed  in  the  political  party 
to  which  he  joined  himself,  and  cheerfully  accepted  its  creed  for  his 
guidance.  His  defense  of  its  principles  was  always  manly  and  far 
removed  from  the  modes  and  practices  of  the  demagogue.  He  won 
the  people  in  his  political  debates,  for  his  appeals  in  their  behalf, 
though  always  eloquent,  sought  to  take  the  reason  rather  than  the 
passions.  He  labored  in  honorable  argument  to  convict  the  judg 
ment  of  those  who  came  to  hear  him.  He  treated  them  as  his  peers 
in  the  honors  and  responsibilities  of  citizenship,  and  would  have 
them  follow  him  only  as  they  were  forced  to  do  so  by  the  unan- 
swerableness  of  his  facts  and  arguments.  The  people  may  laugh 
at  the  anecdote  of  the  orator  who  seeks  only  to  please,  but  they  will 
follow  the  orator  who  renders  his  principles  unassailable  by  in- 
trenchmente  of  undeniable  fact  and  well-built  arguments. 

The  eminent  statesman  whom  we  seek  to  honor  by  these  services, 
was  bold  and  frank.  He  could  not,  from  his  very  nature,  play 
the  coward  or  the  deceiver.  He  boldly  took  his  positions  and 
frankly  proclaimed  them.  He  may  have  erred  in  judgment  at 
some  time,  and,  indeed,  many  times,  but  he  could  not  purposely 
mislead.  His  openness,  his  freedom  from  deceit,  gave  him  the 
hearts  of  the  people.  For  these,  they  loved  him  and  yielded  to 
his  arguments.  These  known  and  felt  qualities  of  heart  made  him 
invincible.  Estrangement  cannot  last  long  between  a  popular 
leader  and  his  friends,  where  the  former  thus  bears  himself.  The 
return  of  Mr.  CARPENTER  to  the  Senate,  after  a  short  retirement, 
attests  the  correctness  of  this  statement. 

The  great  orator  and  statesman  was  generous  and  kind.  His 
deeds  of  charity  were  many.  He  would  defend  the  poor  man 
with  all  his  wealth  of  learning  and  eloquence  when  no  fee  could 
be  expected.  His  early  struggles  against  poverty  had  put  him 
into  sympathy  with  the  unfortunate.  His  goodly  nature,  aside 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HUMPHREY,  OF  WISCONSIN.  59 

from  his  personal  cxjxiricnce,  had  made  him  the  friend  and  de 
fender  of  the  poor.  The  eminent  lawyer  and  accomplished  orator 
was  at  the  same  time  the  ready  friend,  the  kind,  sympathetic  sup- 
I>orter  of  him  who  was  ready  to  perish.  Herein  was  honor. 
Hence  shall  come  the  sweet  memories  of  noble  deeds,  following 
into  the  distant  future  the  name  of  him  who  performed  them. 

The  drying  up  a  single  tear  has  more 

Of  houost  fame  than  shedding  seas  of  gore. 

Senator  CARPENTER  acquired  no  wealth  while  in  public  life. 
His  poverty  increased  while  in  the  councils  of  the  nation. 

In  conclusion,  great  attainments  in  the  science  of  law  and  of 
government,  qualities  of  heart  making  him  the  object  of  sincere 
and  trusting  love  with  the  people,  unsurpassed  devotion  to  prin 
ciple  and  duty,  a  public  service  wholly  free  from  all  taint  of  cor 
ruption  and  even  doubtful  gain,  make  it  easy  to  record  our  pro 
found  respect  for  his  noble  life  and  character.  He  dignified  labor, 
learning,  and  Christian  charities.  The  nation  mourns  him.  Her 
halls  of  legislation  are  now  dedicated  to  a  recital  of  his  illustrious 

O 

life  and  character.  Beyond  this  we  cannot  go.  We  leave  him 
and  his  name  to  the  just  work  of  impartial  history. 


Address  of  Mr.  HUMPHREY,  of  Wisconsin. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  The  mantle  of  winter  was  still  lingering  over 
the  landscape,  spring  was  struggling  to  emerge  from  the  dead  past 
into  new  life,  while  nature  was  striving  to  break  the  bands  of  her 
environment  to  deck  her  with  garlands  of  roses  and  clothe  her 
in  mantles  of  green.  Amid  these  contending  forces  the  mind  of 
MATTHEW  HAT.E  CARPENTER  was  contemplating  the  great  un 
changeable  change  his  spirit  was  awaiting.  Surrounded  by  all 
that  was  dear  to  him  in  life,  when  the  summons  came,  without  a 


60       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H,  CARPENTER. 

murmur  his  spirit  passed  from  earth  into  the  realms  of  the  ever 
lasting. 

The  funeral  obsequies  at  his  home  in  the  Cream  City  of  the  West 
bear  the  clearest  testimony  of  the  very  high  and  distinguished 
honor  in  which  he  was  held  by  her  mourning  people.  Legions  of 
citizens  of  all  ranks  and  conditions,  clothed  in  the  emblems  of 
mourning,  crowded  every  avenue  to  join  in  the  last  sad  rite  the 
living  can  pay  to  the  dead — tenderly  and  lovingly  laying  him  to 
rest  where  the  blue  Michigan  laves  her  western  shores. 

Yes,  MATTHEW  HALE  CARPENTER  is  no  more ;  but  he  will 
live  in  unfaded  memory  of  his  noble  and  generous  heart,  his  full 
ness  of  manly  qualities,  his  illustrious  and  brilliant  career. 

No  words  of  mine  can  do  him  justice,  nor  can  I  in  fitting  lan 
guage  portray  the  powers  of  his  eloquence,  his  profound  knowledge, 
or  that  exquisite  tension  of  mind  which  developed  his  genius  and 
understanding. 

Born  and  reared  among  the  rugged  hills  and  mountains  of  his 
native  State,  whose  primeval  forests  were  ever  pointing  upward,  he 
seems  to  have  been  inspired  by  their  grandeur  and  sublimity,  and 
taking  for  his  motto  "  onward  and  upward,"  his  young  mind  de 
termined  to  grasp  and  solve  not  so  much  the  laws  by  which  nature 
had  been  guided  in  forming;  her  rock-ribbed  mountains  and  the 

O  o 

forms  of  snow  which  capped  their  lofty  peaks  as  the  laws  which 
lead  his  fellow-men  on  and  up  to  a  better  civilization,  which  give 
peace  and  permanence  to  nations  and  the  highest  degree  of  social 
order  to  the  people  of  a  commonwealth. 

When  we  say  he  was  an  eminent  lawyer  we  have  bestowed  but  a 
half  meed  of  praise,  and  we  only  do  justice  to  his  memory  when  we 
say  that  he  was  not  only  learned,  brilliant,  and  eloquent,  but  that 
he  was  as  profound  as  he  was  eloquent. 

When  he  arose  to  address  the  court  upon  any  question  of  great 
moment,  he  had  only  to  proceed  to  a  mere  statement  of  the  case  to 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HUMPH  KEY,  OF  WISCONSIN.  61 

convince  you  that  it  was  a  mere  toy — a  plaything  in  his  hands; 
that  untiring  energy  and  ceaseless  toil  had  attended  his  steps  by  day 
and  unwearying  vigils  had  been  his  only  companion  by  night. 
Sometimes  in  the  opening  of  the  case,  but  most  frequently  in 
the  midst  of  the  argument,  his  heart  would  seem  to  hold  back 
the  great  depth  of  thought  which  impelled  him,  that  his  brill 
iant  imagination  might  for  a  moment  have  full  play  and  invest 
the  theme  with  a  charm  that  would  captivate  and  entrance  the 
hearer ;  then  in  quick  succession  would  follow,  as  does  the  artil 
lery  of  heaven  her  brilliant  flashes,  the  full  weight  of  concentrated 
thought  and  power  of  his  reasoning  until  the  argument  forged  by 
the  hand  of  genius  appeared  in  all  its  proportions  of  strength  and 
beauty. 

It  has  been  said  that  energy  and  perseverance,  added  to  an  un 
flagging  spirit,  are  a  full  substitute  for  genius ;  but  here  we  find 
genius  leading  captive  at  her  will,  while  energy  and  perseverance 
are  proud  to  follow  in  her  train. 

That  MATTHEW  HALE  CARPENTER  was  a  student  none  who 
knew  him  will  gainsay  or  deny,  and  in  his  legal  pursuits  he 
entered  every  domain  that  could  furnish  him  materials  for  legal 
store  or  the  bread  of  legal  life  and  strength. 

Like  Chancellor  Kent,  he  had  great  delight  in  the  study  and 
contemplations  of  the  principles  of  the  civil  law,  and  as  that  emi 
nent  and  renowned  law  writer  has  done  more  than  any  other  to 
soften  the  asperities  of  the  common  law  by  ingrafting  upon  it  some 
of  those  principles  of  the  civil  law  which  will  ever  shed  luster 
upon  the  jurisprudence  of  this  country,  so  did  he  whose  life  we 
are  now  contemplating  seek  among  things  new  and  old,  principles 
which,  when  once  clothed  upon  by  that  perspicuity  of  reasoning 
for  which  he  was  so  eminently  distinguished,  will  ever  tend  to 
elucidate  and  adorn  the  spirit  of  our  laws. 

He  well  knew  that  there  was  not  a  principle  laid  down  by  any 


62       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

law  writer  in  Christendom  which  had  not  its  foundation  in  the 
Pentateuch ;  therefore,  he  not  only  consulted  the  Genesis  of  Man, 
but  the  Exodus  and  Judges  of  Israel;  history,  philosophy,  theology, 
and  law,  all  were  companions  which  he  entertained  with  great 
zest  and  delight,  and  from  which  he  could  at  any  moment  select 
the  choicest  materials  and  at  once  invest  his  cause  with  an  interest 
as  solemn  and  a  charm  as  fascinating  as  the  most  illustrious  Roman 
senator  or  Athenian  advocate. 

In  private  life  his  warm  and  genial  manners,  added  to  his  fine 
conversational  powers,  drew  to  him  very  many  warm,  sincere,  and 
trusting  friends,  and  when  recreation  for  a  season  drew  him  aside 
from  his  arduous  labors  it  was  with  the  most  lively  satisfaction 
and  pleasure  that  he  gave  himself  up  to  the  full  measure  of  social 
enjoyment — his  conversation  sparkling  with  gems  of  wit  and 
humor,  his  manner  as  frank,  tender,  and  trusting  as  a  child ;  his 
countenance  gleaming  with  unmistakable  evidence  that  neither 
malice  nor  revenge  found  any  resting-place  in  his  heart,  that 
neither  avarice  nor  arrogance  had  ever  disturbed  her  seat. 

In  view  of  what  has  been  said,  it  must  be  apparent  that  his  suc 
cess  at  the  bar  was  marvelously  rapid,  and  that  it  was  as  substan 
tial  as  it  was  rapid,  and  in  a  few  short  years  his  renown  as  a  law 
yer  had  passed  the  bounds  of  his  State  and  his  fame  had  become 
national. 

Having  been  retained  in  the  famous  case  "  In  the  matter  of  ex 
parte  William  H.  McCardle,  appellant,"  he  appeared  before  the 
United  States  court  to  argue  the  case  in  behalf  of  this  govern 
ment,  and  we  venture  the  assertion  that  few  cases  have  ever  been 
presented  before  that  court  with  greater  ability.  The  opening 
was  a  masterpiece  of  oratory,  at  the  same  time  showing  a  modesty 
of  demeanor  becoming  one  so  much  younger  in  years  than  the 
venerable  and  eminent  counsel  opposing.  To  illustrate  his  noble 
and  exalted  comprehension  of  the  office  and  obligation  of  the  law- 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  Ill'Ml'IIItEY,  OF  WISCONSIN.  63 

ycr,  the  advocate,  we  will  quote  his  words  in  the  opening  of  that 

noted  case.     Said  he : 

• 

This  is  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  tho  world  that  a  bench  of  judges  has 
been  invoked  to  redress  tho  wrongs,  real  or  imaginary,  of  cloven  millions  of 
people,  and  to  establish  tho  authority  of  ten  protending  governments.  Such 
controversies  have  been  decided  by  force,  not  by  reason;  in  the  field,  not  in 
the  courts.  Waterloo  determined  the  fate  of  Napoleon,  and  he  went  in  sullen 
silt-nee  to  his  ocean  rock,  never  dreaming  of  the  habcan  corpua.  No  lawyer  can 
argue,  no  judge  decide,  this  cause  without  a  painful  sense  of  the  responsibility. 
Its  consequences  will  be  upon  us  and  upon  our  children,  and  generations  yet 
unborn  will  rejoice  or  mourn  over  tho  principles  to  bo  here  established.  This 
court  has  been  told,  not  for  tho  first  time,  that  it  is  the  great  conservative 
department  of  tho  government;  that  if  it  does  not  keep  constant  vigil  over 
the  other  departments  they  will  rush,  as  would  the  planets  without  tho  law 
of  gravitation,  into  "hopeless  and  headlong  ruin."  There  is  nothing  within 
tho  circle  of  human  emotions,  unless  it  be  tho  pleasure  with  which  a  lovor 
praises  the  real  or  imaginary  charms  of  his  mistress,  at  all  to  be  compared  to 
the  delight  experienced  by  a  lawyer  in  glorifying  a  court.  It  results  from  our 
studies  and  our  training  that  we  entertain  the  utmost  reverence  for  those  who 
must  declare  what  the  law  is.  Within  proper  bounds  this  is  commendable, 
but  the  bar  in  a  free  country  often  have  higher  duties  to  perform,  and  this 
adulation  of  judges  may  bo  carried  to  excess.  The  judges  of  this  court,  like 
tho  Apostles  of  our  Lord,  are  men  of  like  passions  and  infirmities  with  other 
men. 

The  bar  stands  in  much  the  same  relation  to  the  court  that  the  prophets 
held  to  tho  ruling  powers  of  tho  ancient  dispensation.  It  is  our  duty,  when 
the  occasions  require,  to  admonish  and  warn,  and  that,  too,  whether  courts 
will  listen  or  whether  they  will  refrain.  There  are  times  when  general  truth* 
should  have  personal  application,  times  when  a  prophet  in  Israel  must  say  to 
a  king  of  Israel,  "Thou  art  the  man."  But  to  do  this  he  should  be  a  prophet 
and  not  a  mere  technical  Levite.  He  should  stand  among  his  brethren  like 
Saul  among  the  multitude,  head  and  shoulders  above  them  all.  So,  too,  tho 
counsel  to  say  what  ought  to  be  said  here  should  be  one  venerated  for  his  age, 
admired  for  his  wisdom — one  who  could  command  audience  in  this  court  as  it 
has  been  said  Wellington  commanded  attention  in  the  House  of  Lords,  not 
tor  elegance  or  art  in  arranging  an  argument  but  because  ho  had  done  tho 
things.  He  had  stood  beneath  the  shell-rent  tree  while  the  fate  of  Europe 
was  being  determined  at  Waterloo. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  can  pronounce  no  encomium  or  eulogy  at  all  to 
be  compared  to  this.  I  will  not  attempt  it.  Since  that  day,  twice 
elected  to  the  Senate  of  these  United  States,  how  often,  to  use  his 
own  language  of  another,  has  he  been  known  to  "shake  the  founda 
tions  of  the  Capitol"  in  the  discussions  that  have  agitated  that 


64       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 

body.  Veneration  for  free  institutions,  reverence  for  the  laws,  he 
could  not  repress.  He  was  every  ready  to  pay  them  the  highest 
homage. 

Enshrined  in  his  heart  were  those  imperishable  principles  which 
are  the  bulwark  of  our  social  fabric,  which  have  a  destiny  higher 
than  that  of  states,  and  were  so  eloquently  enunciated  by  the  most 
renowned  writer  of  any  age  on  ecclesiastical  polity:  "Of  law  there 
can  be  no  less  acknowledged  than  that  her  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God ; 
her  voice,  the  harmony  of  the  world ;  all  things  in  Heaven  and  in 
earth  do  her  homage — the  very  least  as  feeling  her  care,  and  the 
greatest  as  not  exempted  from  her  power;  both  angels  and  men  and 
creatures  of  what  condition  soever,  though  each  in  different  sort  and 
manner,  yet  all,  with  uniform  concert,  admiring  her  as  the  mother 
of  their  peace  and  joy." 


Address  of  Mr.  ROBESON,  of  New  Jersey. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  Mr.  CARPENTER  was  one  of  the  highest  types 
of  that  personal  and  public  character  which  is  produced  only  in  a 
country  and  under  conditions  like  ours.  A  nation  gathered  from 
the  vitality  of  every  land,  uniting  in  one  community  the  enterprise 
and  progressive  energy  of  every  people,  and  kindling  it  with  the 
associations  of  every  race,  with  a  continent  as  a  birthright  and  free 
dom  as  a  franchise,  it  is  fit  that  we  should  be,  as  a  people,  the 
leaders  and  the  champions  of  freedom  and  progress,  for  ourselves, 
not  only,  but  for  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth. 

A  nation  not  "born  on  the  soil"  which  it  inhabits,  nor  growing 
either  with  its  physical  development  or  its  progress  from  barba 
rism,  but  transferring,  by  colony  and  occupation,  the  customs  and 
habits,  associations  and  ideas,  principles  and  laws  of  other  ages  and 
older  continents,  to  control  and  direct  the  undeveloped  resources 


ADDRESS  OF  J/fl.  ROBESON,  OF  NEW  JERSEY.  65 

ami  unorganized  elements  of  the  new,  demands  and  obtains,  in  the 
directors  of  its  thought  and  the  leaders  of  its  action,  physical  and 
mental  qualities  more  rarely  needed,  and  therefore  more  rarely  pro 
duced,  in  other  lands  and  under  other  exigencies  of  civilization  and 
progress.  It  is  of  the  nature  of  man  to  rise  in  spirit  to  the  level 
of  the  great  action  of  which  he  is  a  part.  The  heart  dwindles  in 
contact  with  small  things  and  petty  interests;  but  when  brought 
in  contact  with  great  ideas,  stirred  by  strong  feelings,  striving  for 
great  ends  with  desperate  energy,  and  pouring  on  the  altar  of  suc 
cess  the  most  terrible  and  precious  sacrifices,  then  the  human  heart, 
developing  the  germ  of  its  immortal  nature,  rises  to  the  height  of 
the  loftiest  ideas,  and  enlarges  to  the  compass  of  the  broadest  prin 
ciples.  Deep  and  firm  foundation  in  the  axiomatic  principles  of 
government  and  organic  law,  close  and  severe  training  in  the  appli 
cation  of  fixed  principles  to  new  and  changing  conditions,  accurate 
and  unwavering  logic  which  has  the  courage  of  its  own  conclusions, 
an  honest  mind  that  submits  to  the  sway  of  its  own  real  convictions, 
and,  higher  than  all,  an  inherent  perception,  which,  when  invoked 
in  the  cause  of  truth,  rises  above  the  mists  of  doubt  and  shakes  off, 
at  will,  the  trammels  of  mere  reason,  until  knowledge  ripens  into 
wisdom,  and  judgment  which  is  human  melts  into  faith  which  is 
divine — these  are  some  of  the  qualities  which  are  invoked  and 
raised  in  the  progress  of  a  civilization  like  ours. 

In  our  American  Pantheon,  the  future  student  of  his  country's 
"history  will  find  the  statue  of  MATTHEW  CARPENTER  standing 
with  a  group,  the  luster  of  whose  fame  will  lighten  but  not  obscure 
his  own — Madison  and  Ellsworth,  Hamilton  and  Marshall,  Cal- 
houu  and  Kent,  Webster  and  Taney — these  are  the  men  with  whom 
his  great  faculties  will  forever  associate  him;  and  of  them  all,  there 
was  not  one  who  held  a  principle  with  a  stronger  grasp  of  logic,  or 
lightened  a  subject  with  brighter  rays  from  that  higher  realm  of 
consciousness  and  feeling,  where  truth  shines  like  the  "day-spring," 
5  c 


66       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 

and  where  genius  soars  like  the  eagle  toward  the  sun.  The  friends 
of  the  right  stood  surprised  and  delighted  when  he  bore  it,  on  the 
strong  wings  of  his  power,  beyond  their  reach,  to  the  clearer  atmos 
phere  of  ethereal  light,  and  fixed  it  as  a  star  in  the  firmament  of 
eternal  truth ;  and  the  champions  of  the  wrong  were  scattered  and 
dismayed  when,  stooping  from  his  companionship  with  the  sun,  he 
struck  it  with  the  weapons  of  Heaven. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  pressure  of  public  duty  has  prevented  me  from 
paying  a  more  matured  and  fitting  tribute  to  the  memory  of  my 
friend,  but  I  should  feel  that  I  had  been  recreant  to  the  best  feel 
ings  of  my  heart  if  I  had  not  paused  long  enough  to  lay  my  simple 
wreath  on  the  tomb  which  covers  the  mortality  of  this  great  lawyer, 
statesman,  and  patriot. 

Address  of  Mr.  HAZELTON,  of  Wisconsin. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  The  death  of  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER,  stand 
ing  pre-eminent  as  he  did  in  the  nation's  eye  as  a  jurist,  orator, 
and  statesman,  creates  a  void  that  cannot  soon  be  filled  or  soon  for 
gotten.  Not  far  beyond  life's  noon,  his  sun  went  down  into  the 
night  of  death,  but  its  splendor  still  lingers  athwart  the  western 
sky,  and  another  illustrious  name  adorns  our  American  roll  of 
honor  and  fame.  The  muniments  of  his  title  to  be  ranked  among 
the  worthies  of  American  history  and  secure  the  lasting  remem 
brance  of  the  American  people  are  largely  enrolled  in  this  capital 
of  the  free,  where  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  and  more  he  spoke 
as  an  advocate  or  Senator,  and  where  the  light  of  his  life  went  out 
forever. 

And  as  it  was  with  Clay  and  Adams,  as  it  was  with  Sumner  and 
Collamer,  with  Stevens  and  Morton,  with  Chandler  and  Burnside, 
this  solemn  memorial  ceremony  is  no  idle  form ;  for  oratory  cannot 
weave  a  garland  of  praise  or  love  that  his  sweet  nature  and  com- 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  IIAXELTON,  OF  WISCONSIN.  67 

manding  genius  did  not  merit.  What  could  be  more  appropriate 
than  this  customary  pause  in  the  active  duties  of  national  legisla 
tion  to  offer  a  tribute  of  friendship  and  eulogy  to  those  of  our  asso 
ciates  who  fall  from  time  to  time  at  their  high  post  of  duty  to  be 
seen  by  us  on  earth  no  more. 

And  now,  turning  from  the  new-made  grave  of  the  dead  Senator 
to  a  retrospect  of  his  life  and  its  results,  his  long  line  of  distin 
guished  service  in  the  forum  of  justice,  his  career  in  the  arena  of 
politics,  his  gifted  contributions  to  oratory  and  literature — 

Fruits  of  a  genial  morn  and  glorious  noon, 
The  deathless  part  of  him  who  died  too  HOOU — 

and  then  to  undertake  an  analysis  of  those  elements  of  character 
which  gave  him  commanding  power  and  influence  among  men,  that 
made  his  presence  the  charm  of  every  social  circle,  and  to  those  who 
"sought  him,  sweet  as  summer,"  I  can  but  realize  how  inadequate 
is  this  occasion  and  how  weak  my  ability  to  do  justice  to  his  mem 
ory  and  his  fame. 

I  know  but  little  of  his  boyhood  history,  except  that,  with  the 
blood  of  the  Pilgrims  in  his  veins,  he  started  out  from  among  the 
free  homes  and  altars  of  New  England,  solitary  and  alone,  to  make 
that  journey  which  has  just  ended  at  the  gateway  of  another  exist 
ence.  He  commenced  with  genius  for  his  scepter,  and  for  his  for 
tune,  poverty.  The  extremes  of  his  life  illustrate  the  marvelous 
opportunities  for  success  afforded  by  free  institutions;  and  this  life- 
picture  in  its  triumphs  stands  not  alone  in  the  history  of  our 
humanity.  To  paraphrase  the  language  of  Griffith  to  the  Queen: 

From  his  cradle 
He  was  a  lawyer,  and  a  ripo  and  good  one. 

The  early  inspirations  of  his  life  inclined  him  toward  the  pro 
fession  for  which  his  natural  powers  were  best  adapted,  and  it  is  on 
this  line  of  development  that  his  genius  shines  with  its  purest  lus- 


68       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

ter  and  his  fame  finds  its  strongest  and  surest  foundations.  From 
that  period  of  his  existence  when  he  was  first  capable  of  fixing  his 
true  course  he  never  surrendered  his  purpose  and  his  determination 
to  reach  the  front  rank  of  the  American  bar.  On  his  way  up,  some 
generous  spirit  assigned  him  to  West  Point,  and,  remaining  there 
but  two  years,  he  resigned  to  resume  the  golden  thread  of  his  true 
ambition. 

In  his  profession  he  was  a  tireless  student.  And  if  he  had  the 
advantage  of  intuition  in  the  consideration  of  a  cause,  no  essential 
fact  escaped  his  notice  and  no  principle  of  law  remained  unex- 
amined. 

All  through  his  professional  life  he  gathered  the  choicest  books 
of  law  and  literature,  until  his  library  grew  to  magnificent  propor 
tions  and  became  a  part  of  the  rich  heritage  left  by  his  death.  All 
along  its  pages  are  the  annotations  of  his  pencil,  and  he  who  un 
dertakes  to  follow  him  will  grow  weary  on  the  journey.  He  knew 
all  "the  paths  the  worthies  held,"  and  the  opinions  of  Marshall 
and  Storey  and  all  the  writings  of  the  great  publicists  read  to  him 
like  a  romance.  He  became  familiar  with  all  the  authorities  and 
the  principles  and  practice  of  the  civil  and  common  law,  with  the 
code  and  all  that  pertained  to  it.  Such  marvelous  facility,  such 
strength  and  practical  knowledge  had  he  acquired  in  the  wide  range 
of  his  profession,  that  there  was  no  court  of  justice  on  earth  whose 
adjudications  were  in  the  English  language  before  which  he  could 
not  easily  and  readily  practice.  Lawyers  who  could  do  this  are 
few  in  any  age  or  any  country.  As  a  trial  lawyer  few  men  ever 
held  a  keener  lance;  and  in  the  courts  of  final  resort  he  was  wel 
comed  as  an  oracle  of  the  law. 

Adopting  the  State  of  Wisconsin  as  his  home  and  the  theater  of 
his  early  professional  career,  he  commanded  the  leading  practice  of 
the  Northwest,  and  through  his  untiring  devotion  to  the  law  and 
through  his  commanding  ability  and  force  of  character  pushed  his 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  IIAXELTON,  OF  WISCONSIN.  G9 

way  on  to  the  highest  judicial  forum  of  the  nation,  where  he  be 
came  the  recognized  peer  of  its  ablest  advocates — of  such  mqn  as 
Reverdy  Johnson  and  Black  and  Gushing  and  Evarts. 

"  If,"  said  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  on  one  occasion,  "  I  have  seen 
further  into  science  than  others,  than  Columbus  or  Kepler  or  Des 
cartes,  it  is  because  I  have  stood  upon  the  shoulders  of  giants." 
So  he  of  whom  we  speak,  mounting  the  shoulders  of  the  older 
giants  of  the  profession,  in  the  growth  and  spirit  of  free  institu 
tions,  and  in  the  light  of  new  principles  and  broader  demands  con 
stantly  arising  in  our  progressive  civilization,  became  stronger  than 
they  -who  were  masters  in  another  day  and  generation. 

The  nation  itself,  in  an  exigency  of  great  importance  to  its  wel 
fare,  recognixed  his  ability  in  law  when  it  summoned  him  to  advo 
cate  and  maintain  before  its  highest  judicial  tribunal  the  constitu 
tionality  of  the  reconstruction  acts,  and  his  great  argument  in 
later  days  gave  construction  to  the  fourteenth  amendment  of  the 
Constitution — a  construction  affecting  the  rights  of  untold  millions 
of  men  and  perhaps  for  all  time. 

So  well  and  so  ably  did  he  present  the  McCardle  case,  involving 
the  constitutionality  of  the  reconstruction  acts,  that  it  became  the 
bridge  over  which  he  passed  into  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
where  his  legal  acumen  was  destined  to  blend  with  the  polity  of 
true  statesmanship. 

In  the  Senate  he  was  conspicuous  from  the  beginning  for  his 
profound  knowledge  of  constitutional  and  parliamentary  law,  and 
at  the  threshold  of  his  service  challenged  its  oldest  and  ablest 
members  in  debate  on  the  most  intricate  questions  of  international 
and  constitutional  law,  and  those  great  measures  of  national  legis 
lation  ever  found  him  equal  to  the  emergency. 

Among  the  fruits  of  lii.s  handiwork  is  the  judiciary  act,  now  the 
guide  of  the  courts  of  the  land ;  and  upon  the  pages  of  all  impor 
tant  debates  he  stamped  the  impress  of  his  great  intellect.  He 


70       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  II.   CARPENTER. 

made  one  mistake,  and  that  was  in  the  endeavor  to  divide  his 
energies  between  the  duties  of  that  great  body  and  the  continued 
practice  of  the  law.  No  man  can  serve  well  two  such  tyrant 
masters. 

And  now  of  his  nature  and  personal  qualities  let  me  speak  a 
word — speak  of  him  as  he  was : 

Nothing  extenuate, 

Nor  set  down  aught  in  malice. 

He  was  by  nature  great,  and  generous,  and  honest.  As  a  law 
yer  he  waged  warfare  on  the  highest  plain  of  honor.  He  sought 
no  advantage  through  favoritism,  and  won  no  victory  by  doubtful 
methods.  He  despised  a  court,  high  or  low,  that  was  not  pure 
and  unsullied.  His  courage  in  the  conduct  of  a  cause  was  the 
sublimity  of  heroism,  and  his  fidelity  to  his  clients  was  never 
open  to  suspicion.  With  the  weaker  side  he  was  ever  generous 
and  forbearing,  and  to  the  poor  he  gave  opinion  and  counsel 
without  money  and  without  price. 

There  was  no  malice  in  his  heart  and  no  tyranny  in  his  nature. 
If  he  had  been  born  a  king  he  would  have  ruled  his  subjects  with 
a  scepter  of  love.  "  In  his  right  hand  he  ever  carried  gentle  peace 
to  silence  envious  tongues."  All  the  world  knew  his  faults  as  well 
as  his  virtues.  There  was  nothing  hidden  in  his  nature.  The  life 
he  lived  and  the  battles  he  fought  were  as  on  the  mountain  tops, 
still  open  to  view,  and  where  the  sunshine  of  his  victories  still 
gleams. 

He  was  a  most  attractive  man  in  his  physical  development. 
Nature  rarely  fashions  into  manhood  a  form  so  perfect  and  a 
presence  so  commanding.  It  was  my  good  fortune  in  boyhood 
days  to  look  upon  Mr.  Webster  and  hear  him  address  a  popular 
audience  in  New  England.  His  great  utterances  still  echo  in  my 
ears,  and  his  godlike  mien,  in  all  its  varied  powers,  still  remains  a 
bright  picture  on  the  walls  of  my  memory.  No  man  ever  saw  and 


ADDRESS  OF  Ult.  1IAZELTOX,  OF  WISCONSIN.  71 

heard  Mr.  CAUPEXTEII  under  like  circumstances  that  did  not  re 
tain  the  impression  uf  his  great  presence  for  a  life-time.  I  bear 
him  in  remembrance  as  he  appeared  in  the  majesty  and  beauty  of 
his  manhood's  strength,  when  his  shoulders  seemed  broad  and 
strong  enough  to  bear  the  weight  of  nations,  and  "  his  look  drew 
audience  still  as  night  or  summer's  noontide  air."  I  bear  him  in 
remembrance  as  he  came  in  the  days  of  war  from  the  forum  of  jus 
tice  to  the  tribunes  of  the  people  "  to  speak  the  word  which  wins 
the  freedom  of  a  land," 

And  lift  for  human  rights  the  sword 

That  dropped  from  Hampden's  dying  hand. 

Who  can  tell  how  hard  and  sad  it  is  to  realize  that  his  great  life 
is  ended ;  that  he  whom  I  knew  and  loved  so  well  is  now  num 
bered  among  the  dead  ? 

Dead  in  the  crowning  hour  of  public  usefulness,  in  the  prime  of 
a  manhood  still  rich  in  promise,  and  like  a  stately  tree  full  of  leaf, 
and  bud,  and  flower,  and  fruit. 

Dead!  while  his  voice  waa  living,  yet 
In  echoes  round  the  pillared  dome, — 
Dead!  while  his  blotted  page  lay  wet 
With  themes  of  state  and  loves  of  home. 

A  mourning  nation  bore  his  ashes  back  to  the  State  he  had 
loved  and  honored,  and  gave  them  over  to  the  loving  hearts  that 
had  sustained  him  in  his  life,  and  will  cherish  his  memory  now 
that  he  is  gone.  There  they  buried  him  by  the  blue  waters  of 
Lake  Michigan,  amid  the  snows  of  a  northern  winter,  beneath 
primeval  oaks  that  stand  as  sentinels  over  his  grave,  while  his  great, 
generous  spirit  was  at  rest  in  the  bosom  of  that  Infinite  Being 
"whom  we  call  God,  and  know  no  more." 


72       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 


Address  of  Mr.  ORTH,  of  Indiana. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  The  American  Congress  is  again  called  upon  to 
render  the  tribute  of  respect  due  to  the  memory  of  one  of  its  re 
cently  deceased  members;  to  make  at  least  a  brief  record  of  its 
knowledge  and  appreciation  of  his  virtues  and  talents,  of  the  more 
prominent  incidents  of  his  private  life  and  public  career,  and  to 
tender  condolence  and  sympathy  to  bereaved  relatives  and  friends. 

We  bow  submissively  and  reverently  to  that  sublimely  myste 
rious  power,  Death,  before  which  all  human  opposition  is  vain, 
which  removes  the  monarch  from  his  throne  as  ruthlessly  as  the 
peasant  from  his  cottage,  and  which  enters  with  the  stride  of  a 
conqueror  into  the  high  places  of  earth,  mocks  at  a  challenge  of 
its  authority,  which  it  exercises  with  absolute  and  uncurbed  sov 
ereignty.  We  are  living  in  a  busy,  ever-changing  world;  time 
moves  so  swiftly,  events  succeed  each  other  with  such  rapidity, 
that  the  memory  of  the  scenes  of  yesterday  is  to-day  already  begin 
ning  to  fade,  and  by  to-morrow  will  almost  be  forgotten. 

We  are  reminded  by  the  solemn  exercises  of  this  hour  that 
scarcely  one  year  ago  MATTHEW  HALE  CARPENTER,  the  great 
Senator  from  Wisconsin,  was  a  most  prominent  figure  in  American 
jurisprudence,  politics,  and  legislation;  one  day  expounding  the 
law,  unfolding  its  intricacies,  and  applying  its  truths  in  our  highest 
judicial  tribunal ;  the  next  day  standing  in  the  Senate,  the  peer  of 
any  of  his  associates,  and  with  equal  ability  and  learning  master 
ing  the  great  underlying  principles  on  which  our  government  is 
founded,  and  seeking  to  ingraft  and  impress  them  upon  the  legisla 
tion  of  the  country.  But  his  voice  is  hushed  in  death  and  his 
once  commanding  form  is  moldering  in  its  mother  earth. 

The  jurisconsult,  the  Senator,  is  gone.  "Alas !  what  shadows 
we  are  and  what  shadows  we  pursue !" 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  ORTIl,  OF  INDIANA.  73 

In  court  his  vast  erudition,  his  indomitable  energy,  and  his  con 
stant  vigilance  made  him  a  most  formidable  adversary,  lie  under 
stood  the  science  of  the  law  as  familiarly  as  most  men  understand 
the  alphabet.  He  understood  it  in  its  most  general  and  compre 
hensive  sense,  in  its  essence  and  its  spirit,  whether  ancient  or 
modern,  and  was  equally  familiar  with  Justinian,  Blackstone,  and 
Story. 

He  was  a  successful  lawyer  because  he  loved  the  law  and  knew 
that,  like  a  jealous  mistress,  it  would  endure  no  rival,  but  demanded 
undivided  attention.  What  were  conflicts  of  the  law  to  most  minds 
were  to  him  only  apparent,  not  real;  its  intricacies  he  readily  dis 
entangled,  and  its  abstruseuess,  under  the  touch  of  his  genius,  lost 
its  obscurity  and  vanished  as  the  dew  vanishes  on  the  approach  of 
the  morningksun. 

In  the  Senate  he  was  ever  a  most  fearless  and  able  debater,  thor 
oughly  posted  upon  every  subject  which  he  felt  himself  called  upon 
to  discuss,  and  bringing  to  such  discussion  an  amount  of  learning 
and  research  that  never  failed  to  shed  upon  his  subject  additional 
light,  however  exhaustive  might  have  been  the  arguments  which 
preceded  him. 

He  loved  his  country,  and  cherished  a  most  ardent  affection  for 
our  history,  our  institutions,  our  laws  and  literature,  our  glorious 
victories  in  war,  and  our  more  eminent  achievements  in  peace. 

It  was  this  love  of  country  which  made  him  so  useful  and  so  suc 
cessful  in  his  legislative  career.  No  man  should  ever  be  intrusted 
with  the  high  responsibility  of  making  the  laws  of  his  country  who 
does  not  love  it  with  all  his  mind,  with  all  his  heart,  and  with  all 
his  strength. 

As  a  legislator  he  st rived  to  make  the  people  better,  wiser,  and 
happier.  He  sought  to  place  upon  the  statute  book  the  principles 
of  justice,  of  liberty,  of  equality,  and  his  voice  was  ever  heard  and 
his  vote  ever  recorded  on  the  side  of  these  sterling  principles,  upon 


74       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  II.  CARPENTER. 

the  success  of  which  he  believed  depended  the  present  peace  and 
happiness  and  the  future  safety  and  glory  of  his  countrymen. 

He  was  a  courageous  man,  having  the  courage  of  his  convictions, 
and  from  it  no  hope  of  temporary  advantage  could  ever  tempt  him, 
no  sophistry  could  pervert  his  clear  judgment,  no  flattery  could 
cause  him  to  swerve  from  the  right,  and  no  solicitation  could  in 
duce  him  to  pursue  the  wrong. 

Strong  in  the  conviction  of  a  well-matured  and  equally  well-bal 
anced  mind,  he  stood  firm  in  the  conscious  rectitude  of  his  position, 
and  hence  he  was  a  safe  legislator,  a  wise  counsellor,  and  a  true 
friend.  Thus  accoutered,  he  went  forward  to  the  discharge  of  life's 
duties,  looking  neither  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left ;  taking  no 
counsel  of  doubt  or  fears ;  heeding  not  the  blandishments  of  power, 
and  spurning  the  slightest  suggestions  of  "  stooping  to  conquer,"  or 
of  bending 

the  pregnant  hinges  of  the  knee, 
That  thrift  may  follow  fawning. 

He  stood  erect  as  God  created  him,  and  dared  to  do  right  for  the 
sake  of  the  right. 

During  his  residence  in  this  city  I  met  him  often  and  knew  him 
well.  His  was  indeed  a  most  kindly,  generous  nature — tender  as  a 
woman  and  guileless  as  a  child.  No  one  ever  approached  him  for 
charity  and  was  sent  away  empty.  No  one  ever  sought  his  advice 
in  hours  of  trouble  and  despondency  that  did  not  receive  full  sym 
pathy,  generous  counsel,  and  heartfelt  encouragement. 

His  heart  and  his  hand  were  always  ready  to  succor  and  befriend. 
That  heart  has  ceased  to  beat;  that  hand  has  lost  its  cunning.  In 
dropping  a  tear  to  his  memory  let  us  also  invoke  Divine  Providence 
to  grant  to  our  beloved  land  many  more  such  sons ! 


AIHHtKSS  OF  MR.   TYLER,  OF  VERMONT.  75 


Address  of  Mr.  TYLER,  of  Vermont. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  It  is  fitting  that  the  representatives  of  a  grout 
republic  should  pause  for  a  day  in  their  accustomed  duties  to  eulo 
gize  the  character  of  a  departed  statesman  and  to  invite  the  living 
to  emulate  his  example.  We  need  also  to  remind  ourselves  that 
we  are  mortal.  In  the  rush  and  excitement  of  public  life  we  can 
hardly  realize  that  death  may  come  and  seize  those  who  seem  the 
strongest  and  best  equipped  for  the  contest.  Public  men,  elated 
by  temporary  distinction,  forget  how  soon  a  new  audience  will 
greet  new  actors,  how  soon  their  words  and  deeds  will  fade  from 
memory. 

The  eternal  surge 

Of  time  and  tide  rolls  on,  and  bears  afar- 
Our  bubbles. 

The  power  which  appoints  our  lot  is  inexorable.  Death  is  com 
mon  to  all.  It  neither  passes  by  the  humble  nor  treats  the  great 
with  homage. 

Pallida  inors  aequo  pulsat  pede  paupemiu  tabcruas 
Kegninque  turres. 

Though  Senator  CARPENTER  served  only  eight  years  in  the  Sen 
ate,  and  died  while  yet  in  the  prime  of  life,  he  made  for  himself  an 
enduring  reputation,  and  placed  his  name  in  the  galaxy  of  America's 
eminent  statesmen.  But,  distinguished  as  he  was  in  the  halls  of 
legislation,  he  perhaps  won  a  more  enviable  fame  as  a  constitutional 
lawyer  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  He  was  a  mas 
ter  of  the  legal  science  and  a  natural  orator.  The  people  of  his 
native  county  well  remember  his  early  efforts  at  the  bar  and  the 
promise  he  gave  of  forensic  achievements,  since  then  so  well  fulfilled. 
Richly  gifted  in-  mind,  with  a  voice  of  marvellous  power  and 
sweetness,  and  with  such  models  before  him  as  Dillingham  of 


76       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

Vermont,  and  Choate  of  Massachusetts,  his  early  instructors  in 
the  law,  the  way  to  high  distinction  as  a  public  speaker  opened 
easily  before  him.  Alas,  while  we  speak  his  silvery  voice  is  hushed, 
the  fires  of  his  wonderful  genius  for  earth  are  quenched  forever. 

The  State  of  which  I  have  the  honor  to  be  a  Representative 
comes  with  her  young  sister  of  the  West  to  bring  her  offering  to 
his  memory,  because  he  was  a  great  lawyer  and  statesman,  an  elo 
quent  orator,  a  man  of  the  kindliest  nature,  and  also  because  he 
was  born  and  passed  his  childhood  and  youth  among  her  green 
hills ;  because  she  watched  with  intense  interest  and  pride  his  bril 
liant  career  from  its  beginning  until  its  close,  and  because  she  hon 
ored  him  as  her  own  son. 

It  was  a  favorite  theory  with  the  ancient  Greeks  that  their  an 
cestors  sprung  directly  from  the  earth,  and  their  love  of  country 
was  greatly  intensified  by  the  belief  that  their  native  laud  was  lit 
erally  their  mother.  On  the  occasions  when  they  pronounced  fu 
neral  orations  and  performed  sacred  rites  in  honor  of  their  heroic 
dead,  they  first  eulogized  the  land  that  gave  them  birth.  Every 
country  produces  its  men  and  stamps  upon  "them  its  own  character 
istics.  It  is  proverbial  that  the  dwellers  in  mountainous  lands  are 
lovers  of  freedom,  and  it  is  doubtless  true  that  Senator  CARPEN 
TER'S  native  State,  of  which-  an  early  poet  said, 

'Tis  a  rough  land  of  rock  and  hill  and  tree, 
Where  dwells  no  titled  lord,  no  cabined  .slave, 
Where  heart  and  hand  and  tongue  are  free — 

gave  him  something  of  the  vigor  of  thought  and  independence  of 
character  for  which  he  became  distinguished. 

This  is  an  occasion  for  eulogy,  an  occasion  to  testify  to  the  worth 
of  a  deceased  statesman,  to  express  personal  regard  and  apprecia 
tion  of  valuable  public  services  by  him  rendered  rather  than  to 
criticise  his  character.  And  this  is  just  eulogy,  that  Mr.  CARPEN- 
TER  possessed  intellectual  faculties  of  great  power  and  brilliancy, 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.   TYLER,  OF  VERMONT.  77 

and  that  he  also  had  a  genius  for  labor.  He  did  not  trust  to  luck 
or  artifice  or  mere  ingenuity  for  his  success.  His  speeches  in  tin; 
Senate  and  on  the  platform,  his  briefs  and  arguments  in  the  courts, 
are  evidence  of  severe  mental  toil.  He  reali/ed  that 

The  heights  by  great  men  won  and  kept 

Were  uot  attained  by  midden  lli^ht ; 
But  they,  while  their  companions  slept, 

Were  toiling  upward  in  the  night. 

It  may  also  be  justly  said  of  him,  as  was  said  of  Lord  Mansfield, 
that  he  was  animated  by  a  sincere  desire  to  be  of  service  to  his 
country  and  by  a  noble  aspiration  after  honorable  fame.  In  future 
years,  when  those  who  inherit  his  name  read  of  his  public  and  pro 
fessional  work  "  in  records  that  defy  the  tooth  of  time,"  especially 
his  expositions  of  the  Constitution  of  his  country,  they  will  have 
the  proud  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  this  end  of  a  most  laudable 
ambition  was  reached. 

To  us  it  seems  that  Senator  CARPENTER'S  death  was  premature, 
that  his  life-work  was  incomplete.  When  we  think  of  the  possi 
bilities  of  his  genius  we  deeply  regret  that  he  could  not  have  lived 
to  old  age,  his  powers  unfolding  with  the  unfolding  years, 

Till,  like  ripe  fruit,  he  dropped 
Into  his  mother's  lap;  or  was  with  ease 
Gathered,  not  harshly  plucked,  for  death  mature, 

rather  than  that  his  light  should  have  gone  out  in  the  zenith  of  its 
splendor.  And  yet  few  names  will  stand  higher  on  the  roll  of 
American  lawyers  than  that  of  MATTHEW  HALE  CARPENTER, 
and  few  men  indeed  have  passed  into  the  great  future  more  respected 
by  political  opponents  or  better  loved  by  friends  than  he.  And 
there  is  consolation  in  the  belief  that  the  mind  never  dies,  that  its 
powers  are  only  transferred  to  a  broader  and  higher  sphere  of 
action,  that 

There  is  no  death 
To  the  living  soul,  nor  loss,  nor  harm. 


78       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 


Address  of  Mr.  BUTTERWORTH,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  It  occurs  to  me  that  the  picture  of  this  noble 
life  is  already  complete.  I  may  mar,  I  can  hardly  hope  to  improve 
it  by  what  I  may  say.  I  shall  detain  the  House  but  a  moment. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  elements  and  characteristics  in  the  moral  and 
intellectual  make-up  of  the  deceased  whom  we  are  met  to  honor, 
and  which  gave  him  conspicuous  prominence  among  his  fellows, 
have  been  adverted  to.  'Tis  needless  that  I  recount  them. 

The  record  of  a  noble  life  is  that  life's  best  eulogy;  the  history 
of  the  deeds  of  worthy  men  their  most  lasting  epitaph. 

This  memorial  service  is  for  the  living,  not  for  the  dead.  If  we, 
the  living  actors  on  this  scene,  and  our  children,  profit  not  by  the 
study  and  example  of  such  a  life  as  that  just  closed,  this  service 
were  worse  than  useless. 

The  influence  of  the  words  and  acts  of  such  men  as  the  deceased 
will  outlast  the  bronze  and  marble  fashioned  to  make  their  names 
immortal. 

The  grand  thoughts  given  to  the  world  by  the  philosophers  of 
Greece  will  outwear  their  Parthenon;  the  utterances  of  Roman 
senators  declaring  some  great  truth  will  be  heard  when  the  mass 
ive  walls  that  echoed  back  those  utterances  have  perished.  It 
is  the  never-dying  echo  of  great  truths  uttered  that  makes  the 
oracle  immortal.  It  is  the  impress  of  great  and  noble  thoughts 
upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men  that  keeps  green  the  memory  of 
those  who  gave  them  to  the  world.  There  is  a  lesson  in  the  life  just 
closed — an  inspiration  in  its  example. 

The  life  of  Senator  CARPENTER  began  in  obscurity,  as  did  those 
of  Lincoln,  and  Garfield,  and  Chandler.  His  success,  like  theirs, 
demonstrates  to  the  youth  of  the  Republic  the  grand  possibilities 
which  open  before  them  under  the  benign  influence  of  that  equality 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  BVTTKRWORTII,  OF  OHIO.  79 

of  opportunity  born  of  the  happy  union  first  formed  in  our  own 
land  between  liberty  and  law.  The  lesson  of  such  lives  and  the 
teaching  of  such  experience  as  they  had,  assure  us,  even  in  these 
fat  and  pursy  times,  when  men  are  prone  to  leave  the  true  altar 
to  worship  Mammon,  that  the  portals  that  inclose  the  seats  of 
greatest  honor  yield  not  alone,  if  at  all,  to  the  touch  of  golden  keys. 
They  have  taught  the  world  that  true  and  lasting  fame  is  for  him 
alone  who  worthily  wins  it  by  observing  the  precepts  of  truth  and 
virtue.  I  will  not  say  that  in  public  affairs  the  deceased  was  the 
first  to  find  the  vantage  ground  of  right;  but  certain  it  is  that  once 
found,  he  never  left  it.  If  he  was  not  the  first  to  voice  the  noblest 
and  l>est  thoughts,  he  was  a  constant  and  eloquent  witness  to  their 
truth  and  potency. 

If  he  was  not  the  first,  by  some  great  act  or  utterance,  to  start 
the  healthful  current  of  a  nation's  thought,  he  was  zealous  and 
powerful  in  guiding  that  current  in  pure  channels  to  useful  and 
ennobling  purposes  and  ends.  He  may  not  have  been  the  first  to 
hear  the  cries  of  the  oppressed,  but,  the  sound  once  caught,  he 
became  one  of  their  most  fearless  champions.  Nor  was  his  voice 
hushed  or  his  pen  idle  until  their  cause  was  won.  If  he  did  not 
plan  great  battles  in  the  arena  of  public  affairs,  he  won  them  when 
planned.  If  he  did  not  order,  he  led  the  charge  against  the 
enemies  of  his  country's  peace  and  happiness.  Abraham  Lincoln 
voiced  the  noblest  and  best  thoughts  of  his  time.  He  gave  expres 
sion  to  the  holiest  emotions  the  human  heart  can  feel.  His  heart 
was  the  heart  of  the  Republic.  It  pulsated  with  great  emotions  as 
the  people  rose  or  sank  under  their  burdens. 

The  inspiration  that  moved  him  to  his  work  was  communicated 
to  the  choice  and  master  spirits  of  that  hour.  MATT  CARPENTER'S 
was  one,  and,  having  put  his  hands  to  the  plow,  he  never  turned 
or  looked  back,  but  pressed  on  until,  with  Lincoln,  and  Garfield, 
and  Chase,  and  Stan  ton,  and  Chandler,  he  rejoiced  over  a  Republic 


80       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATT  SEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

saved  and  a  people  disenthralled.  Great  man !  Upon  the  scroll 
of  fame  where  a  country's  love  writes  the  names  of  those  who 
served  her  well  his  name  will  appear.  Lincoln,  Garfield,  Chase, 
Stanton,  Chandler,  CARPENTER.  What  a  galaxy  of  glorious  names ! 
Great  in  ability,  great  in  mental  furnishings,  great  in  moral 
grandeur,  great  in  patriotic  achievements.  It  will  be  long  ere  the 
Republic  will  find  their  fellows. 

In  studying  the  history  and  example  of  such  lives,  what  youth 
so  humble  that  he  may  not  dare  to  climb  the  rugged  steep  that 
leads  to  competence  and  honor?  Since  a  grateful  country  thus  re 
wards  the  devotion  of  her  self-sacrificing  children,  who  will  not  be 
prompted  to  a  more  faithful  and  earnest  discharge  of  public  duty? 

There  is  a  fragrance  and  a  perfume  that  lingers  about  the  name 
of  the  good  that  lasts  beyond  their  lives.  The  truths  they  teach 
by  their  precepts  and  illustrate  by  their  example  are  not  for  a  day 
or  a  year,  but  for  the  centuries.  We  bless  them  because  the  influ 
ence  of  their  lives  has  given  us  confidence  in  the  present  and  filled 
us  with  hope  for  the  future.  MATT  CARPENTER  was  with  and  of 
the  great  and  good  of  our  time.  His  name  and  memory  are  dear 
to -us.  He  and  they  are  at  rest,  their  labors  ended,  and  their  duty 
done.  It  will  be  ill  with  the  Republic  when  her  sons  no  longer 
cherish  the  recollection  of  such  men  nor  profit  by  the  example  of 
their  lives. 


Address  of  Mr.  DEUSTER,  of  Wisconsin. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  A  sad  and  mournful  duty  summons  me  to-day 
to  discharge  its  sacred  obligations.  I  rise  to  perform  a  delicate  and 
difficult  duty,  to  which  my  plain,  simple  words  can  hardly  do 
justice.  A  citizen  of  my  State  has  departed,  whose  loss  has  not 
only  fallen  heavily  upon  the  Commonwealth  of  which  he  was  an 
ornament,  but  whose  death-knell  reverberated  through  the  Halls  of 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  DEUSTEJi,  OF  WISCONSIN.  81 

Congress,  through  the  chambers  of  our  highest  judicial  tribunals, 
and  re-echoed  from  the  farthest  confines  of  our  vast  dominion, 
awakening  sorrow  and  giving  us  the  sad  consolation  of  responding 
deep  sympathy  and  mournful  regrets  from  the  people  of  all  parts 
of  the  land  for  the  Commonwealth  which  sustained  so  great  and 
severe  a  loss  by  the  untimely  demise  of  one  of  its  greatest  public 
men. 

In  the  death  of  MATTHEW  HALE  CARPENTER,  which  occurred 
in  this  city  on  the  24th  day  of  February,  1881,  Wisconsin  laments 
the  loss  of  a  citizen  like  whom  she  has  but  few  to  give  to  our  com 
mon  country,  and  whose  removal  from  the  scenes  of  his  earthly 
labors  would  be  intensely  felt  by  any  country.  His  splendid  career 
would  have  been  a  source  of  pride  and  satisfaction,  a  worthy  object 
of  admiration,  and  a  bright  example  for  imitation,  had  fortune  lav 
ished  her  smiles  and  favors  upon  a  child  of  affluence  and  wealth, 
the  bearer  of  a  famous  name  and  scion  of  a  noble  house.  Had  all 
these  advantages  been  laid  at  his  cradle,  his  genius  would  still  have 
won  for  him  that  prominence  and  high  rank  among  the  foremost 
men  of  his  day  which  genius  will  secure  and  individual  worth  can 
command.  But  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER  was  not  the  favored 
mortal  whose  path  is  strewn  with  the  bright  flowers  of  life's  advan 
tages  and  the  rich  gifts  of  inheritance.  He  was  a  living  illustration 
of  that  manly  pluck  and  perseverance  that  will  always  come  out  of 
the  long  struggle  with  adversity  and  misfortune  the  victor,  stronger 
and  better  than  before  the  conflict. 

In  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER'S  history  of  his  early  life  and 
manhood's  struggles  the  earlier  history  of  some  of  America's  best 
and  noblest  sons  has  but  repeated  itself.  Out  of  the  darkness  of 
poverty  and  misfortune  his  strong  heart  and  genius  plowed  for  him 
the  path  that  led  to  the  broad  sunshine  of  success.  He  was  not 
"the  son  of  his  father"  in  the  sense  of  inheriting  a  great  family 

name  or  reaping  the  fruits  of  renown  which  famous  predecessors 
6c 


82       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 

in  the  ancestral  line  had  earned ;  he  was,  to  use  a  common  phrase, 
the  architect  of  his  own  fortune,  and  he  rase  to  an  eminence  vouch 
safed  to  few,  not  by  the  aid  of  outward  help,  but  by  the  genius  and 
manly  qualities  that  were  in  him.  In  his  success  a  noble  example 
is  presented  to  the  struggling  youth  of  to-day  that  may  well  inspire 
them  with  bright  hopes  for  the  future;  and  for  this  alone  we  have 
reason  to  feel  grateful  that  he  was  given  us  and  spared,  not  so  long 
as  we  should  have  wished  to  see  him  among  us,  but  yet  long  enough 
to  ascend  to  the  height  to  which  his  deserving  genius,  the  love  and 
estimation  of  his  fellow-men,  and  public  esteem  and  admiration 
elevated  him. 

MATTHEW  HALE  CARPENTER  was  born  in  Moretown,  Wash 
ington  County,  Vermont,  on  December  22,  1824.  At  the  tender 
age  of  eleven  years  he  lost  his  mother  by  death,  and  young  CAR 
PENTER  was  received  into  the  household  of  a  friend,  Hon.  Paul 
Dillingham,  of  Waterbury,  Vermont.  Here  he  received  such  an 
education  as  the  common  schools  of  the  place,  the  bibliographical 
collections  of  his  foster-father,  and  the  associations  with  a  family  of 
education  and  refinement  afforded.  In  1843  he  entered  the  mili 
tary  school  at  West  Point,  but  resigned  two  years  later  on  account 
of  ill-health  and  returned  to  Waterbury,  where  he  devoted  himself 
to  the  study  of  law  under  the  guidance  of  Mr.  Dillingham.  In 
1847  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Montpelier,  Vermont,  and  soon 
thereafter  removed  to  Boston,  where  he  entered  the  law  office  of  the 
foremost  lawyer  of  New  England,  Rufus  Choate.  This  great  man 
soon  recognized  the  true  mettle  of  the  young  law  student,  and  Mr. 
CARPENTER'S  frankness,  genial  humor,  clear  intellect,  and  industry 
won  him  a  life-long  friend  in  his  famous  preceptor — a  friendship 
that  was  soon  to  undergo  severe  tests  in  the  crucible  of  adversity,  * 
and  stood  them  well.  After  Mr.  CARPENTER'S  admission  to  the 
bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  Massachusetts,  upon  Mr.  Choate's  mo 
tion,  in  1848,  he  came  West,  and  cast  his  lot  with  the  people  of 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  DETSTEIi,  OF  WISCONSIN.  83 

Wisconsin,  taking  up  his  residence  and  opening  a  law  ofiioe  at  Bc- 
loit.  His  generous  friend  enable<l  him  to  do  so  by  furnishing  the 
means  for  the  journey,  and  supplying  him  with  a  law  library.  Be 
fore  the  young  lawyer  had  fairly  commenced  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  however,  het  became  afflicted  with  a  serious  disease  of 
the  eyes,  which  was  unfortunately  aggravated  by  maltreatment, 
and  subsequently  shut  him  out  for  years  from  the  bright  light  of 
day.  Impenetrable  darkness  surrounded  the  unhappy  man,  and 
for  three  long  years  he  remained  totally  blind. 

What  tongue  am  tell,  what  pen  describe  the  anguish,  the  misery 
of  a  genial,  active  mind  encompassed  within  itself,  and  imprisoned 
within  the  frail  yet  impenetrable  walls  of  a  body  that  has  ceased  to 
perform  one  of  its  most  important  functions — to  place  our  inner 
most  life  en  rapporte  with  the  outside  world  through  the  "mirror 
of  the  soul,"  the  eye!  How  keen,  how  intense  must  have  been 
the  sufferings  of  one  who  had  but  yesterday  entered  the  arena  of 
life's  contests  buoyant  with  hope,  well  armed,  and  eager  for  the 
fray,  and  full  of  confidence  of  future  success! 

Shut  off  from  the  outeide  world  by  an  affliction  that  would  have 
brought  utter  despair  to  any  heart  less  strong  and  brave  than  his, 
all  the  admirable  qualities  of  Mr.  CARPENTER'S  inner  life  were 
brought  out,  and  supported  him  in  this  great  trial.  Nor  did  his 
generous  and  illustrious  friend  forsake  him  during  this  long  period 
of  physical  and  probably  far  greater  mental  suffering.  Through 
his  assistance  Mr.  CARPENTER  was  enabled  to  undergo  successful 
treatment  at  New  York,  where  his  obstinate  disease  at  last  yielded 
to  medical  skill.  Restored  to  himself  and  the  world,  Mr.  CARPEN 
TER  returned  to  Beloit  to  enter  upon  that  brilliant  professional 
career  which  has  since  won  him  so  prominent  and  conspicuous  a 
place  among  the  foremost  men  of  the  American  bar. 

He  was  elected  district  attorney  in  his  county  in  1852,  and  soon 
earned,  by  general  acknowledgment,  the  reputation  of  l>eing  one  of 


84       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

the  most  eloquent  and  effective  pleaders  in  the  State,  a  reputation 
which  he  brilliantly  sustained  afterwards  when  his  growing  practice 
included  cases  of  interest  to  the  whole  State.  His  increasing  busi 
ness  necessitated,  in  1858,  his  removal  from  Beloit  to  Milwaukee, 
where  he  formed  a  copartnership  with  our  late  chief  justice,  E.  G. 
Ryan,  then  the  foremost  practitioner  in  the  State,  but  the  partner 
ship  was  soon  thereafter  dissolved.  His  continued  successes  added 
constantly  to  his  fame  and  growing  prominence,  and  a  victory 
achieved  soon  afterward  in  a  railroad  litigation  where  the  best  legal 
talent  in  the  State,  including  his  late  partner,  was  arrayed  against 
him,  placed  him  at  once  at  the  head  of  the  profession,  and  resulted 
in  securing  to  him  permanently  a  lucrative  and  important  practice, 
in  cases  of  that  character,  often  involving  the  possession  of  property 
many  millions  in  value. 

During  the  war  period  he  was  one  of  the  most  active  Union 

Democrats,  exhausting  his  brilliant  eloquence  in  fervent  appeals 

• 
for   the   maintenance  of  an   undivided   country,  an   indissoluble 

Union  of  States.  His  great  services  and  talents  were  readily 
recognized  and  appreciated  by  those  who  had  heretofore  been  his 
political  opponents,  and  soon  after  the  close  of  the  war  he  was 
cheerfully  accorded  the  position  of  one  of  the  foremost  leaders  of 
the  Republican  party  in  the  State  with  which  he  had  affiliated  now 
altogether. 

In  the  summer  of  1867  he  was  chosen  as  a  delegate  to  the  Re 
publican  State  convention.  He  subsequently  took  an  active  part 
in  the  presidential  contest  of  1868,  and  during  the  following  win 
ter  he  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  to  succeed  James  R. 
Doolittle,  whose  term  then  expired. 

He  entered  the  Senate  on  March  4,  1869,  and  almost  immedi 
ately  acquired  prominence  and  leadership  in  that  grave  and  con 
servative  part  of  our  National  Legislature.  His  personal  popularity 
greatly  enhanced  the  general  respect  and  esteem  in  which  he  was 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  DEDSTER,  OF  WISCONSIN.  85 

held  for  his  legislative  ability  and  legal  attainments.  He  was  hon 
ored  during  the  last  two  years  of  his  term  by  his  election  as  Presi 
dent  pro  tempore  of  the  Senate,  a  rare  distinction  for  a  younger 
Senator,  in  view  of  the  eminent  character  of  the  older  members 
who  then  graced  the  Senate  Chamber.  Political  dissensions  within 
his  own  party  prevented  his  re-election  at  the  expiration  of  his 
term;  but  he  was  again  sent  to  the  Senate  from  his  State  in  the 
winter  of  1878.  In  the  mean  time  he  had  devoted  his  whole  time 
and  attention  to  the  practice  of  his  profession  before  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  before  which  he  ranked  with  the  foremost 
and  leading  lawyers  of  the  country. 

But  even  while  these  political  and  professional  honors  continued 
to  mark  his  path  in  life,  the  dark  shadows  of  approaching  dissolu 
tion  began  to  cast  their  ominous  traces  upon  the  hitherto  unob 
structed  pathway  of  this  great  man.  While  Mr.  CARPENTER 
remained  apparently  the  same  in  the  keenness  of  his  sparkling  wit, 
the  fascination  of  his  conversational  powers,  and  the  brilliancy  of 
his  oratorical  gifts,  yet  he  was  known  to  be  suffering  greatly,  and 
disease  was  daily  making  greater  inroads  upon  his  system.  There 
were  those  unerring  signs  in  his  outward  appearance,  too,  that  filled 
his  friends  and  admirers  with  gloomy  forebodings,  and  these  fears 
grew  with  the  recurrence  of  long  spells  of  illness  which  confined 
the  illustrious  man  to  his  home,  and  interfered  with  the  continu 
ance  of  the  prominent  and  active  part  taken  by  him  in  public  and 
legal  affairs.  At  last  the  fell  destroyer  ended  this  remarkable  ca 
reer,  and  Mr.  CARPENTER  passed  away,  after  a  long  and  painful 
illness,  on  the  24th  day  of  February,  1881,  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven 
years. 

It  is  often  charged,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  we  are  wont  to  go  unrea 
sonably  far  in  our  laudations  of  departed  friends,  and  seek  to  invest 
them  with  a  surfeit  of  good  qualities  which  we  were  loath  to  recog- 
ni/e  in  the  living.  But  while  we  may  somewhat  exaggerate  in  one 


86       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

instance  or  another,  yet  there  are  instances  where  the  mere  tribute 
of  words,  and  be  it  even  the  most  eloquent  praise,  the  highest  enco 
mium  from  human  lips,  can  but  poorly  and  inadequately  describe 
the  master-work  of  the  Creator  that  seemed  to  have  been  placed 
upon  earth  in  its  greatest  perfection.  In  the  former  case  it  is  but 
just  to  remember  that  we  are  only  too  ready  in  the  common  walks 
of  life  to  accept  the  good  qualities  we  see  in  our  friends  as  quite  a 
matter  of  course;  and  conscious  of  our  own  failings,  our  vanity 
quickly  discerns  and  often  overestimates  the  shortcomings  of  others, 
especially  if  we  feel  that  they  rank  in  other  respects  far  above  us. 
Our  own  imperfection  seems  to  find  some  compensation  in  the  dis 
covery  of  the  faults  of  others,  and  it  is  only  when  we  stand  in  the 
awful  prasence  of  death  that  we  realize  the  exact  truth.  Then  the 
consciousness  of  our  own  imperfection  hushes  the  voice  of  vanity 
and  throws  the  mantle  of  charity  over  what  we  knew  to  be  the 
failings  of  others,  and  comparing  both  pages  of  their  life's  history 
we  begin  to  wonder  how  little  appreciation  we  have  shown  of  the 
good  qualities  of  the  departed,  and  how  greatly  we  have  exaggerated 
the  shadows  which  should  have  but  served  to  show  the  bright  sides 
to  greater  advantage. 

What  Michelet,  the  witty  Frenchman,  said  of  woman — that  she 
has  faults  only  in  order  that  her  excellent  qualities  might  show  to 
better  advantage,  just  as  the  shadows  more  strongly  reveal  the 
bright  light — can  also  justly  be  said  of  our  great  departed  friend. 
When  we  find  a  man  whose  great  gifts  and  fine  endowments  have 
placed  him  far  above  the  multitude,  and  whose  superior  mind  and 
genius  have  won  for  him  all  the  distinction  which  his  admiring 
contemporaries  can  well  ^proffer,  and  still  find  him  sharing  but  few 
of  the  imperfections  of  frail  humanity,  then,  I  think,  we  cannot 
afford  to  be  reserved  and  miserly  in  the  bestowal  of  the  praise  due 
such  a  man,  and  should  rather  seek  comfort  and  solace  for  his 
untimely  loss  in  the  fond  recollection  of  all  the  good  and  the  virtu- 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  DELSTEK,  OF  tt'ISCOSSIX.  87 

ous  and  the  noble  that  was  in  the  living,  and  the  remembrance  of 
which  he  left  Ixjhuul — a  sacred  inheritance  to  his  friends,  a  worthy 
example  to  the  young,  a  pure  and  most  acceptable  connecting  link 
between  the  living  and  the  departed,  the  deiid  past  and  the  bright 
present. 

Such  a  mail,  whose  loss  not  only  die  State  of  Wisconsin  but  our 
whole  country  has  regretted  with  deep  sorrow,  and  whose  great 
capabilities  were  recognized  in  every  sphere  of  life  in  which  he 
shone  among  his  fellow-men,  was  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

We  take  a  just  pride  in  what  we  call  our  "self-made  men,"  such 
as  he  was,  l>ecause  they  are  living  examples  of  the  excellence  of  our 
civil  and  republican  institutions,  and  prove  to  the  world  that  the 
possibilities  for  true  worth  and  genius  arc  limitless  with  us,  broad 
as  the  blue  expanse  above  us,  and  as  liberal  as  the  magnanimous 
organic  law  itself  under  which  we  life.  Such  men  become  popular 
favorites  with  us,  and  their  names,  like  household  words,  are  ujxm 
every  one's  lips,  and  the  whole  country  takes  a  warm  interest  in 
their  welfare. 

The  tidings  of  Mr.  CARPENTER'S  death,  therefore,  created  a  pro 
found  sensation  of  sorrow  throughout  the  country,  acknowledged  as 
he  was  to  be  one  of  the  few  great  intellects  that  tower  far  above 
the  mediocrity  of  the  masses  and  from  the  nurslings  of  adversity 
rise  to  the  eminence  of  recognized  authority  in  the  empire  of  learn 
ing  and  wisdom. 

The  announcement  of  his  untimely  death  was  made  in  the  United 
States  Senate  by  his  colleague,  Hon.  Angus  Cameron,  in  feeling  and 
appropriate  terms,  and  was  followed  by  brief  remarks  on  the  part 
of  Hon.  George  H.  Pendleton,  of  Ohio,  who  eulogized  the  dead 
statesman  in  the  highest  terms,  whereupon  the  Senate,  out  of  respect 
to  its  deceased  distinguished  member,  adjourned.  . 

I  cannot  better  convey  in  brief  terms  the  deep  and  lasting  im 
press  which  this  intellectual  giant  left  upon  the  minds  of  those 


88       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

associated  with  him  in  the  highest  council  of  the  nation,  the  highest 
legal  tribunal  in  the  land,  in  the  walks  of  private  life,  and  the 
pleasant  relations  of  spiritual  friendship,  than  by  referring  to  the 
resolutions  of  respect  of  the  bench  and  bar  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  reported  at  a  special  meeting  by  the  commit 
tee  on  resolutions,  comprising  the  following  prominent  gentlemen  : 
Hon.  David  Davis,  Hon.  Arthur  MacArthur,  Hon.  Roscoe  Conk- 
ling,  Hon.  Jeremiah  S.  Black,  Hon.  E.  T.  Merrick,  Hon.  Philip 
Phillips,  Hon.  Charles  Devens,  Hon.  W.  D.  Davidge,  and  Hon. 
Jeremiah  M.  Wilson.  The  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted, 
and  subsequently  presented  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  in  open  session,  which  ordered  them  spread  upon  the  record 
.  of  the  court : 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  the  bar  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  have  received  with  profound  sorrow  the  intelligence  of  the  death  of 
MATTHEW  HALE  CAKPENTER,  who  for  many  years  was  a  most  distinguished 
practitioner  in  this  court. 

Resolved,  That  wo  lament  the  loss  of  one  whose  brilliancy  as  an  advocate 
and  learning  as  a  lawyer  had  elevated  him  to  the  highest  rank  of  the  profes 
sion. 

Resolved,  That  his  memory  is  entitled  to  be  cherished  by  the  bar  for  his  go- 
iiial  qualities  as  an  associate,  for  his  professional  honor  and  ability,  and  for 
his  wisdom  and  independence  as  a  legislator. 

Resolved,  That  the  Attorney-General  be  requested  to  present  these  resolu 
tions  to  the  court;  and, 

Resolved,  That  the  chairman  of  this  meeting  present  these  proceedings  to 
the  family  of  the  deceased,  with  the  expression  of  the  profound  sympathy  of 
the  bar. 

Representatives  of  his  own  State  and  of  the  United  States,  ap 
pointed  by  both  branches  of  Congress,  followed  all  that  was  mortal 
of  the  illustrious  man  to  his  Western  home,  his  final  resting-place, 
and,  with  due  observance  of  the  solemn  ceremonials  befitting  the 
occasion,  delivered  to  the  governor  of  Wisconsin  the  remains  of  the 
•  dead  statesman.  I  cannot  refrain  from  repeating  the  touching  trib 
ute  paid  him  by  the  spokesman  of  the  committee  representing  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  the  honorable  Senator  from  New  York, 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  DEUSTER,  OF  WISCONSIN.  89 

Roscoc  Conkling,  who,  in  turning  over  the  sacred  charge  to  the 
representative  of  the  people  of  Wisconsin,  said: 

Governor:  Deputed  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  we  bring  back  tbe 
ashes  of  Wisconsin's  illustrious  son,  and  reverentially  and  tenderly  return 
them  to  the  great  Common  wealth  he  served  so  faithfully  and  loved  so  well. 
To  Wisconsin  this  pale  and  sacred  clay  belongs;  but  the  memory,  the  services, 
and  the  fame  of  MATTHKW  HALE  CAHPENTKR  are  the  nation's  treasures,  and 
long  will  the  sister  States  mourn  the  bereavement  which  bows  all  hearts  to 
day. 

The  interment  took  place  on  April  10,  1881,  under  appropriate 
and  impressive  ceremonies,  and  was  participated  in  by  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  national  and  State  governments,  the  courts,  the 
municipal  authorities  of  Milwaukee,  and  an  immense  concourse  of 
citizens. 

Thus  closed  the  brilliant  and  remarkable  career  of  MATTHEW 
H.  CARPENTER.  His  name  and  fame  will  ever  adorn  the  history 
of  his  State  to  which  he  rendered  such  signal  service,  and  orna 
ment  the  pages  upon  which  the  contemporaneous  history  of  our 
common  country  will  be  recorded  with  one  of  the  brightest  exam 
ples  of  a  representative  American  citizen. 

He  was  a  Republican;  I  am  a  Democrat;  yet  partisanship  has 
never  been  able  to  divide  us  by  a  barrier  of  narrow  confines,  and 
to  prevent  us  from  entertaining  the  highest  mutual  raspect.  I  have 
always  admired  the  manly  qualities  of  the  living,  and  would  now 
add  my  humble  services  in  honoring  the  dead  and  in  planting  the 
laurel  of  our  common  admiration  and  the  willow  of  our  deep  sor 
row  and  regrets  upon  his  grave. 

May  we  not  justly  hope  and  believe  that  the  Supreme  Judge  of 
the  Universe  has  granted  this  great  mortal  his  application  for  eter 
nal  happiness  without  argument?  And  while  we  fondly  believe 
thus,  we  part  from  his  earthly  resting-place  affectionately  and  lin- 
geringly,  inscribing  upon  it  all  that  hope  can  express  in  simple 
words,  rcqniescat  in  pace. 


90       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

The  resolutions  submitted  by  Mr.  Williams,  of  Wisconsin,  were 
unanimously  adopted. 

The  SPEAKER  (at  four  o'clock  and  thirty-five  minutes  p.  m.). 
In  accordance  with  the  resolutions  just  adopted,  and  as  a  tribute  to 
the  memory  of  the  late  Senator  CARPENTER,  this  House  stands 
adjourned  until  to-morrow  at  twelve  o'clock  m. 


THE  INTERMENT. 


The.  Congressional  Committee,  consisting  of  Senators  Angus 
Cameron,  Bosooe  Conk  ling,  John  A.  Logan,  John  P.  Jones,  Fran 
cis  M.  Cockrell,  Representatives  Charles  G.  Williams,  George  C. 
Hazel  ton,  Herman  L.  Humphrey,  John  G.  Carlisle,  Elbridge  G. 
Lapham,  George  M.  Robeson,  and  Horace  F.  Page,  left  with  the 
remains  on  a  special  train  from  the  Baltimore  and  Potomac  depot, 
via  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  and  arrived  in  Milwaukee  on  April 
9th,  where  they  were  met  by  the  governor  with  a  civil  and  mili 
tary  cortege,  which  accompanied  them  to  the  State-house,  where 
Senator  Conkling  said : 

Governor :  Deputed  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  we 
bring  back  the  ashes  of  Wisconsin's  illustrious  son,  and  reveren 
tially  and  tenderly  return  them  to  the  great  commonwealth  he 
served  so  faithfully  and  loved  so  well.  To  Wisconsin  this  pale 
and  sacred  clay  belongs ;  but  the  memory,  the  services,  and  the 
fame  of  MATTHEW  HALE  CARPENTER  are  the  nation's  treasures, 
and  long  will  the  sister  States  mourn  the  bereavement  which  bows 
all  hearts  to-day. 

Governor  Smith  responded  : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Congressional  Committee  : 
As  representatives  of  the  people  of  Wisconsin,  we  accept  the  mor 
tal  remains  of  our  gifted  Senator  and  well-beloved  friend,  and 
to-morrow  we  will  bear  them  to  their  final  resting-place  in  the 
beautiful  cemetery  adjacent  to  this  city  which  was  his  home  for  so 
many  years.  We  beg  you  to  accept  our  most  sincere  thanks  for 

the  consideration  you  have  shown  to  the  people  of  Wisconsin  in 

91 


92       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

the  action  had  by  both  houses  of  Congress  in  respect  to  the  mem 
ory  of  the  illustrious  dead,  and  in  coming  hither  accompanying 
his  sorrowing  family  upon  this  sad  mission. 

We  are  very  much  gratified  to  know  that  you  will  remain  with 
us  to  assist  in  the  last  rites  connected  with  the  burial  of  our  hon 
ored  dead.  You  will  thus  witness  for  yourselves  the  estimation 
in  which  your  late  associate  was  held  by  his  immediate  neighbors 
and  fellow-citizens. 

Gentlemen,  again  let  me  thank  you  and  tender  to  you  assurances 
of  our  appreciation  of  your  kind  offices  to  our  deceased  friend, 
whose  remains  we  now  receive  from  your  considerate  care. 

The  remains  were  interred  in  Forest  Home  Cemetery  on  April 
10,  in  the  presence  of  the  family,  the  committee,  and  a  large  con 
course  of  people. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR  OF  Till] 
SUPREME  COURT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


The  Bar  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  met  in  the 
court-room,  in  the  Capitol,  Washington,  on  Monday,  March  7, 
1881,  at  2  o'clock  p.  m.,  to  pay  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  late 
MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

On  motion,  Mr.  Allen  G.  Thurraan  was  appointed  Chairman, 
and  Mr.  James  H.  McKenney  Secretary. 

Mr.  Thurman,  on  taking  the  chair,  addressed  the  meeting  as 
.  follows : 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  BAR:  We  have  met  together  to  pay  a 
fitting  tribute  to  the  memory  of  our  deceased  brother,  MATTHEW 
H.  CARPENTER. 

It  might  seem  to  be  almost  superfluous  to  say  to  this  audience 
who  he  was  and  what  he  was.  There  is,  perhaps,  no  one  here  to 
day  who  has  not  witnessed  some  one  or  more  of  those  remarkable 
displays  of  forensic  eloquence  and  of  legal  learning  for  which  he 
was  so  justly  distinguished.  There  are  but  few,  if  any,  lawyers  in 
the  republic  who  have  not  heard  of  his  fame;  for  it  was  as  wide 
spread  as  the  continent.  And  yet  it  is  but  proper  and  becoming 
that  we,  who  knew  him  so  well  and  had  the  best  means  of  observa 
tion  and  judgment,  should  give  expression  to  the  estimate  we  formed 
of  the  lawyer  and  the  man,  and  suitable  utterance  to  the  sorrow  we 
feel  at  the  loss  of  a  friend. 

I  am  well  aware  of  the  proneness  to  extravagance  that  has  too 
often  characterized  eulogies  of  the  dead,  whether  delivered  from  the 
pulpit,  in  the  forum,  or  in  the  Senate-House.  But  I  feel  a  strong 
conviction  that,  however  exalted  may  be  the  praise  spoken  here 


94       LIFE  AND  CHAEACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 

to-day,  it  will  not  transcend  the  merits  of  its  object,  or  offend  the 
taste  of  the  most  scrupulous  and  truth-loving  critic. 

I  knew  Mr.  CARPENTER  intimately,  from  the  time  we  entered 
the  Senate  together  until  his  death,  a  period  of  nearly  twelve  years. 
During  two-thirds  of  this  time  we  served  on  the  Committee  on  the 
Judiciary,  and  I  cannot  better  convey,  in  brief  terms,  the  impression 
he  made  upon  me,  andxupon  all  his  fellow-members,  than  by  read 
ing  the  following  resolution  of  the  committee,  adopted  at  its  last 
session: 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  committee  are  deeply  affected  by  the 
loss  of  their  late  colleague,  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER,  who  departed  this  life, 
in  this  city,  on  the  24th  ultimo. 

During  a  period  of  nearly  eight  years'  service  on  this  committee,  his  groat 
intellectual  ability,  profound  legal  learning,  and  remarkable  industry  com 
manded  the  admiration  of  all  who  served  with  him,  while  his  uniformly  cor-  . 
teous,  kind,  and  agreeable  manners  won  and  retained  their  affection. 

Gentlemen,  it  is  not  my  purpose,  nor  would  it  be  consistent  with 
the  brevity  that  it  is  incumbent  on  me  to  observe,  to  give  a  bio 
graphical  sketch  of  our  departed  friend.  There  are  others  here 
much  more  competent  to  perform  that  duty  than  I  am.  I  confine 
myself  to  the  qualities  of  the  lawyer  and  the  man.  That  he  pos 
sessed  by  nature  a  mind  singularly  acute,  ready,  and  logical,  all 
who  knew  him  will  testify.  That  these  qualities  were  greatly  im 
proved  and  strengthened  by  exercise  and  study,  is  also  well  known. 
But  there  was  another  trait  of  his  character  that  was  not  so  well 
known.  Although  not  deficient  in  a  proper  self-reliance,  he  was 
seldom,  it  seemed  to  me,  fully  satisfied  with  his  own  conclusions 
until  he  found  them  fortified  by  careful  and  laborious  study.  It 
was  not  sufficient  for  him  to  know  what  he,  himself,  at  first  sight, 
thought  of  a  question ;  he  wanted  to  know  what  others  had  thought 
of  it.  And  this  habit  led  him  to  entertain  something  like  a  scornful 
dislike  to  what  are  known  as  "off-hand  opinions."  He  was  very 
far,  indeed,  from  being  a  mere  case  lawyer,  but  he  was  also  very 


HEM  ARKS  OF  MS.  ALLEN  G.  THURMAN.         95 

far  from  undervaluing  the  learning  that  is  found  in  the  books.  In 
this  respect  he  was  another  illustration  of  the  truth,  that  has,  per 
haps,  no  exception,  that  no  genius,  however  great,  no  eloquence, 
however  grand  or  persuasive,  can,  without  laborious  study,  make  a 
]>crfect  lawyer.* 

Of  Mr.  CARPENTER  in  his  personal  relations,  it  would  be  a  grate 
ful  duty  for  me  to  speak,  for,  as  I  have  said,  we  were  intimate 
friends  almost  from  the  time  of  our  first  acquaintance.  How  genial 
he  was,  how  cheerful  even  when  suffering  from  disease,  how  mind 
ful  of  the  feelings  of  others,  how  honorable  in  all  his  transactions; 
these  were  characteristics  that  no  friend  of  his  will  ever  forget. 
And  what  a  wonderful  command  of  temper  he  possessed !  I  have 
seen  him  in  the  most  heated  discussions  in  the  Senate,  in  committee, 
and  at  the  Bar,  when  the  coolest  and  most  experienced  man  might 
have  been  excused  for  an  angry  word,  or,  at  least,  an  angry  look,  and 
yet  I  cannot  recall  a  single  instance  in  which'  he  lost  his  temper. 
Had  this  self-command  been  the  result  of  a  cold  temperament,  a 
want  of  proper  sensibility,  or  an  unfeeling  heart,  it  would  afford  no 
theme  for  commendation.  But  when  it  was  found  in  a  man  of  an 
ardent  nature,  of  the  keenest  sensibility,  and  of  the  warmest  affec 
tions,  too  much  can  scarcely  be  said  in  its  praise.  Gentlemen,  were 
I  to  give  way  to  my  inclination,  I  should  say  much  more.  But  I 
would  not  willingly  consume  the  time  that  belongs  to  others,  and  I 
forbear. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  David  Davis,  the  following  gentlemen  were 
ap]X)inted  by  the  Chair  to  constitute  a  Committee  on  Resolutions: 

Mr.  David  Davis,  Mr.  Philip  Phillips, 

Mr.  Arthur  MacArthur,  Mr.  Charles  Devens, 

Mr.  Roscoe  Conkling,  Mr.  \V.  D.  Davidge, 

Mr.  Jeremiah  S.  Black,  Mr.  Jeremiah  M.  Wilson. 
Mr.  R.  T.  Merrick, 


96       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

The  committee  thereupon  retired,  and  on  returning  reported, 
through  Mr.  Davis,  the  following  resolutions  for  adoption : 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  the  Bar  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  have  received  with  profound  sorrow  the  intelligence  of  the  death  of 
MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER,  who  for  many  years  was  a  most  distinguished  prac 
titioner  in  this  court. 

Resolved,  That  we  lament  the  loss  of  one  whose  brilliancy  as  an  advocate 
and  learning  as  a  lawyer  had  elevated  him  to  the  highest  rank  of  the  pro 
fession. 

Resolved,  That  his  memory  is  entitled  to  be  cherished  by  the  bar  for  his 
genial  qualities  as  an  associate,  for  his  professional  honor  and  ability,  and 
for  his  wisdom  and  independence  as  a  legislator. 

Resolved,  That  the  Attorney -General  be  requested  to  present  these  resolu 
tions  to  the  court ;  and 

Resolved,  That  the  chairman  of  this  meeting  present  these  proceedings  to 
the  family  of  the  deceased,  with  the  expression  of  the  profound  sympathy  of 
the  bar. 

The  CHAIRMAN.     The  resolutions  reported  by  the  committee 
are  before  the  meeting. 


Remarks  of  Mr.  ARTHUR  MACARTHUR. 

Mr.  CHAIRMAN  :  I  have  been  requested  to  move  the  adoption  of 
the  resolutions  just  reported  by  your  committee,  and  although  I  can 
scarcely  trust  myself  with  this  office,  I  feel  that  no  apology  is  neces 
sary  for  the  effort.  "When  I  recall  our  early  intimacy  and  associa 
tion,  commencing  before  he  had  established  a  great  reputation  at  the 
bar,  or  attained  one  of  the  highest  positions  in  the  Senate,  I  can 
scarcely  realize  that  he  accomplished  this  in  a  little  more  than  a  score 
of  years,  and  that  now  there  is  nothing  of  him  left  but  the  sacred 
image  of  the  dead. 

MATTHEW  HALE  CARPENTER  died  in  the  flower  of  his  years 
and  the  zenith  of  his  fame,  and  the  wonderful  possibilities  which 
were  in  prospect  from  the  exercise  of  his  great  faculties  have  been 
prevented  when  most  certain  and  most  needed.  His  death  is,  there- 


n  EM ARKS  OF  MR.  ARTHUR  MAC  ARTHUR.         97 

fore,  felt  as  a  public  and  professional  loss.  It  is  a  touching  spec 
tacle  we  witness  in  this  distinguished  gathering,  for  although  he  had 
attained  high  position  at  the  bar  and  in  the  Senate  such  as  few 
lawyers  possess,  there  was  no  envy,  no  jealousy,  in  the  feelings  of 
his  contemporaries,  and  here  to-day,  by  a  spontaneous  emotion,  are 
assembled  distinguished  members  of  the  Senate  and  the  most  emi 
nent  representatives  of  the  bar,  to  pronounce  his  panegyric  and  to 
pay  respect  to  his  fame  by  imposing  and  honorable  remembrance  of 
his  life. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  commenced  his  legal  studies  in  the  office  ot 
Governor  Dillingham,  at  that  time  the  leading  lawyer  in  the  State 
of  Vermont,  and  who  subsequently  became  his  father-in-law.  In 
the  space  of  a  year  he  removed  to  Boston  and  became  the  pupil  of 
Rufus  Choate,  then  in  the  full  splendor  of  his  professional  career. 
That  great  advocate  was  not  slow  to  appreciate  the  remarkable  dili 
gence  and  powers  of  his  student,  and  predicted  his  future  success. 
Upon  being  admitted  to  the  bar  he  immediately  went  West,  in 
1848,  settling  at  Beloit,  then  the  center  of  one  of  the  most  impor 
tant  counties  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin.  It  may  be  safely  affirmed 
that  CARPENTER  had  every  qualification  for  the  toilsome  ascent 
before  him,  and  the  heroic  endurance  necessary  to  acquire  profes 
sional  success.  He  soon  took  position  among  the  first  at  the  bar. 
Business  prospered,  and  he  became  a  leader  in  the  circuit,  like  one 
to  whom  the  place  belonged. 

He  must  have  been  in  his  thirty-second  year  when  he  argued 
his  first  celebrated  case  in  the  supreme  court  of  the  State.  It  re 
lated  to  the  disputed  title  to  the  office  of  governor,  and  enlisted  the 
ablest  and  oldest  lawyers  on  either  side.  During  the  previous  six 
years  Mr.  CARPENTER  had  frequently  addressed  the  court,  making 
a  strong  impression  by  the  clearness  of  his  statements  and  the  ex 
cellence  of  his  briefs,  and  commanding  not  only  the  attention  but 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  iudges;  but  now  he  displayed 
7  r 


98       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

that  wonderful  power  of  expression  and  argument  which  has  since 
distinguished  him  before  the  whole  country. 

In  1856  he  became  a  resident  of  the  city  of  Milwaukee,  and  was 
at  once  retained  in  a  great  railroad  litigation  involving  corporate 
rights  and  franchises,  a  subject  which  still  agitates  public  opinion, 
and  will  probably  convulse  the  forum  of  public  policy  more  in  the 
future  than  in  the  past.  When  he  appeared  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  where  these  cases  were  finally  determined, 
those  who  heard  and  the  judges  who  listened  were  struck  not  less 
by  his  manner  than  by  his  argument.  He  took  his  place  among 
the  able  lawyers  of  the  country. 

In  1861  the  country  was  startled  by  the  fall  of  Sumter  and  the 
proclamation  of  the  President.  There  are  certain  public  questions 
which  take  shelter  under  the  protection  of  party  politics  and  are 
dovetailed  into  their  accepted  platforms;  but  here  was  a  question 
forbidden  to  that  category,  and  every  citizen  was  to  decide  the 
question  of  country  and  patriotism  for  himself.  Mr.  CARPENTER 
felt  himself  compelled  to  sever  the  political  bonds  of  his  party  and 
to  give  all  his  talents,  his  voice,  and  his  acts  to  the  active  prosecu 
tion  of  the  war  and  the  support  of  the  government. 

In  1868  Mr.  Stanton,  who  was  then  Secretary  of  War,  employed 
Mr.  CARPENTER  to  represent  the  United  States  in  the  Supreme 
Court  in  the  celebrated  case  of  McArdle.  Perhaps  no  greater 
constitutional  questions  were  ever  presented  for  the  consideration 
of  that  tribunal.  His  brief  on  this  occasion  is  often  referred  to  as 
one  of  the  masterpieces  in  our  forensic  literature;  and  it  is  remark 
able  that  the  positions  argued  by  him  constituted  the  very  grounds 
upon  which  the  reconstruction  measures  enacted  by  Congress  were 
founded,  and  the  States  related  back  to  their  place  in  the  federal 
Union.  It  is  not  often  that  a  mere  lawyer  has  the  good  fortune  to 
mold  and  reinstate  the  jurisprudence  of  his  country.  It  is  only 
when  genius  has  a  rare  opportunity,  like  Erskine,  when  he  vindicated 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  ARTHUR  MAC  ARTHUR,         99 

and  saved  freedom  of  speech  in  the  Stockdale  trials  for  the  benefit 
of  all  English-speaking  people;  or  Hamilton,  when  in  a  single 
effort  he  re-established  the  true  doctrine  of  libel ;  or  CARPENTER, 
when  he  enforced  the  principles  upon  which  the  national  Union 
must  ever  repose  for  its  safety.  He  was  now  placed  before  the 
whole  people  as  a  great  constitutional  lawyer.  This  important 
event  in  his  life  was  soon  followed  by  his  elevation  to  the  Senate. 
And  although  it  is  only  in  his  capacity  as  a  lawyer  that  we  speak 
of  him  here,  I  may  l>e  permitted  to  say  that  the  expectations  of 
his  friends  and  constituents  were  amply  justified.  His  reputation 
is  not  more  established  at  the  bar  than  his  success  in  that  great 
assembly.  It  was  the  first  and  only  office  he  ever  held,  except 
that  of  prosecuting  attorney  for  the  county  where  he  first  settled  in 
Wisconsin. 

In  regard  to  the  personal  character  of  the  deceased  I  can  only 
speak  from  my  affections.  My  sentiment  is  one  of  devotion  to  his 
memory,  and  my  inspiration  is  the  friendship  now  hallowed  by  his 
death.  During  his  residence  in  the  city  of  Washington,  those  in 
suffering  and  distress  constantly  applied  to  him  and  received  such 
relief  as  his  generous  nature  prompted  him  always  to  extend.  He 
was  courteous  and  gracious  to  all,  and  ingratiated  himself  with 
the  ignorant,  the  unfortunate,  and  the  oppressed,  for  he  knew  how 
useful  information  could  be  obtained  from  those  engaged  in  other 
pursuits,  even  the  humblest  and  the  most  obscure.  He  was  amiable 
and  patient  to  the  very  last  limit  of  endurance;  and,  while  he 
had  few  favors  to  remember,  and  the  exercise  of  gratitude  was  not 
often  called  for  on  his  part,  there  are  hundreds,  and  even  thousands, 
who  will  recall  his  kindness  in  word  and  act,  and  express  their 
gratitude  all  the  days  of  their  lives. 

There  was  no  malice  in  his  nature,  and  he  forgave  an  injury  with 
the  readiness  that  he  conferred  a  favor,  and,  in  either  case,  he  seemed 
better  and  happier. 


100       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

He  had  not  received  a  classical  education  and  spoke  no  language 
but  his  own,  but  his  knowledge  of  English  literature  was  extensive, 
accurate,  and  scholarly,  and  he  had  accumulated  the  most  extensive 
private  library  in  the  Northwest. 

The  great  duty  of  the  advocate  is  self-devotion,  to  advance  the 
interest  of  his  client  rather  than  his  own  fame  or  wealth,  and  CAR 
PENTER  regarded  this  as  the  very  tenure  of  his  professional  exist 
ence.  In  that  cause  so  sacred  in  his  consciousness,  he  would  face  a 
court  and  defy  popular  clamor,  and  he  would  talk  all  day  and  labor 
all  night  when  the  fortunes  of  a  great  controversy  were  in  his  hands, 
even  when  the  fee  or  reward  was  uncertain. 

His  prodigious  power  of  labor  and  application,  before  his  health 
gave  way,  if  not  genius  itself,  was  one  of  his  most  remarkable  char 
acteristics.  After  spending  a  day  or  evening  in  ordinary  pursuits, 
or  social  enjoyment,  he  not  unfrequently  employed  the  night  in  pre 
paring  for  the  morrow,  when  he  would  appear  in  court  fresh  and 
undaunted  as  after  a  night's  repose,  and  woe  to  the  adversary  who 
thought  to  gain  an  advantage  or  secure  a  surprise.  When  he  went 
to  a  trial  he  knew  every  point  in  the  case,  and  just  where  to  press 
his  argument.  He  was  skilled  in  every  branch  of  practice  at  nisi 
prius.  To  interrogate  a  witness,  address  the  court,  or  seize  with 
dexterous  ingenuity  every  law  point  that  came  to  hand,  seemed  to 
be  a  natural  instinct  with  him.  He  filled  the  ear  of  the  jury  with 
the  wondrous  tone  of  his  voice,  and  kept  them  from  the  weariness 
of  a  long  trial  by  his  overflowing  humor  and  bonhomie.  He  knew 
the  spirit  of  the  people  and  was  acquainted  with  all  the  terms  01 
their  sensational  expression.  He  was  always  wide  awake,  thor 
oughly  in  earnest,  and  his  quickness  at  repartee  made  it  dangerous 
for  his  antagonist  to  risk  any  personal  or  critical  allusion.  His 
temper  was  perfect,  to  which  was  allied  his  extraordinary  power  of 
speaking  directly  and  clearly  to  the  point  in  hand  like  all  great  nisi 
prius  lawyers  in  the  open  exercise  of  their  profession.  Although 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  ,7.  &   BLACK.  101 

he  seldom  indulged  in  figures  of  speech  or  flights  of  the  imagina 
tion,  no  one  could  clothe  a  logical  argument  in  clearer  terms  or  with 
more  powerful  appeals.  At  times  his  eloquence  could  persuade 
and  not  unfrcqucntly  he  inspired  a  jury  by  the  magnanimity  of  his 
sentiments.  It  was  a  common  observation  that  he  never  left  the 
least  ground  of  complaint  either  to  his  client  or  his  adversary. 

His  sparkling  conversation,  his  ready  wit  and  genial  appreciation, 
rendered  him  the  most  charming  and  agreeable  of  companions.  He 
never  was  formally  connected  with  any  religious  communion,  but 
he  had  a  reverent  belief  in  the  principles  of  Christianity,  remem 
bering  that  the  great  I^aw-Giver  is  the  creator  and  father  of  us  all. 

To  consecrate  the  ashes  of  the  dead,  and  to  remember  and  prac 
tice  what  was  good  and  generous  in  their  lives,  is  the  most  accept 
able  service  we  can  render  to  those  who  have  been  separated  from 
the  living  and  become  partakers  of  a  diviner  life.  Let  this  be  the 
tribute  we  pay  to  the  memory  of  our  departed  friend,  whom  death 
has  translated  to  immortality. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  close  by  moving  the  adoption  of  the  resolutions. 


Remarks  of  Mr.  J.  S.  BLACK. 

The  American  bar  has  not  often  suffered  so  great  a  misfortune 
as  the  death  of  Mr.  CARPENTER.  He  was  cut  off  when  he  was 
rising  as  rapidly  as  at  any  previous  period.  In  the  noontide  of 
his  labor  the  night  came,  wherein  no  man  can  work.  To  what 
height  his  career  might  have  reached  if  he  had  lived  and  kept  his 
health  another  score  of  years,  can  now  be  only  a  speculative  question. 
But  when  we  think  of  his  great  wisdom  and  his  wonderful  skill  in 
the  forensic  use  of  it,  together  with  his  other  qualities  of  mind  and 
heart,  we  cannot  doubt  that  in  his  left  hand  would  have  been  un 
counted  riches  and  abundant  honor,  if  only  length  of  days  had  been 


102       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.   CARPENTER. 

given  to  his  right.  As  it  was,  he  distanced  his  contemporaries  and 
became  the  peer  of  the  greatest  among  those  who  had  started  long 
before  him. 

The  intellectual  character  of  no  professional  man  is  harder  to 
analyze  than  his.  He  was  gifted  with  an  eloquence  sui  generis.  It 
consisted  of  free  and  fearless  thought  wreaked  upon  expression 
powerful  and  perfect.  It  was  not  fine  rhetoric,  for  he  seldom  re 
sorted  to  poetic  illustration ;  nor  did  he  make  a  parade  of  clenching 
his  facts.  He  often  warmed  with  feeling,  but  no  bursts  of  passion 
deformed  the  symmetry  of  his  argument.  The  flow  of  his  speech 
was  steady  and  strong  as  the  current  of  a  great  river.  Every  sen 
tence  was  perfect;  every  word  was  fitly  spoken;  each  apple  of  gold 
was  set  in  its  picture  of  silver.  This  singular  faculty  of  saying 
everything  just  as  it  ought  to  be  said  was  not  displayed  only  in  the 
Senate  and  in  the  courts ;  everywhere,  in  public  and  private,  on  his 
legs,  in  his  chair,  and  even  lying  on  his  bed,  he  always  "  talked  like 
a  book." 

I  have  sometimes  wondered  how  he  got  this  curious  felicity  of 
diction.  He  knew  no  language  but  his  mother-tongue.  The 
Latin  and  Greek  which  he  learned  in  boyhood  faded  entirely  out 
of  his  memory  before  he  became  a  full-grown  man.  At  West  Point 
he  was  taught  French,  and  spoke  it  fluently;  in  a  few  years  after 
wards  he  forgot  every  word  of  it.  But  perhaps  it  was  not  lost ;  a 
language  (or  any  kind  of  literature),  though  forgotten,  enriches  the 
mind  as  a  crop  of  clover  plowed  down  fertilizes  the  soil. 

His  youth  and  early  manhood  was  full  of  the  severest  trials. 
After  leaving  the  Military  Academy  he  studied  law  in  Vermont, 
and  was  admitted,  but  conscientiously  refused  to  practice  without 
further  preparation.  He  went  to  Boston,  where  he  was  most  gen 
erously  taken  into  the  office  of  Mr.  Choate.  He  soon  won  not 
only  the  good  opinion  of  that  very  great  man,  but  his  unqualified 
admiration  and  unbounded  confidence.  With  the  beneficence  of  an 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  J.  S.  BLACK.  103 

elder  brother,  Choate  paid  his  way  through  the  years  of  his  toil 
some  study,  and  after  wards  supplied  him  with  the  means  of  starting 
in  the  West.  The  bright  prospect  which  opened  before  him  in 
Wisconsin  was  suddenly  overshadowed  by  an  appalling  calamity. 
His  eyes  gave  way,  and  trusting  to  the  treatment  of  a  quack,  his 
sight  was  wholly  extinguished.  For  three  years  he  was  stone- 
blind,  "the  world  by  one  sense  quite  shut  out."  Totally  disabled, 
and  compassed  around  with  impenetrable  darkness,  he  lost  every 
thing  except  his  courage,  his  hope,  and  the  never-failing  friendship 
of  his  illustrious  preceptor.  Supported  by  these  he  was  taken  to 
an  infirmary  at  New  York,  where,  after  a  long  time,  his  vision  was 
restored.  Subsequent  to  these  events,  and  still  under  the  auspices 
of  Mr.  Choate,  he  returned  to  Wisconsin  and  fairly  began  his 
professional  life. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  effect  upon  his  mental 
character  was  produced  by  his  blindness.  I  believe  it  elevated, 
refined,  and  strengthened  all  his  faculties.  Before  that  time  much 
reading  had  made  him  a  very  full  man ;  when  reading  became 
impossible  reflection  digested  his  knowledge  into  practical  wisdom. 
He  perfectly  arranged  his  store-house  of  facts  and  cases,  and  pon 
dered  intently  upon  the  first  principles  of  jurisprudence.  Think 
ing  with  all  his  might,  and  always  thinking  in  English,  he  forgot 
his  French,  and  acquired  that  surprising  vigor  and  accuracy  of 
English  expression  which  compel  us  to  admit  that  if  he  was  not  a 
classical  scholar,  he  was  himself  a  classic  of  most  original  type. 

He  was  not  merely  a  brilliant  advocate,  learned  in  the  law,  and 
deeply  skilled  in  its  dialectics;  in  the  less  showy  walks  of  the  pro 
fession  he  was  uncommonly  powerful.  Whether  drudging  at  the 
business  of  his  office  as  a  common-law  attorney  and  equity  pleader, 
or  shining  as  leader  in  a  great  nisi  prius  cause,  he  was  equally  ad 
mirable,  ever  ready  and  perfectly  suited  to  the  place  he  was  filling. 
This  capacity  for  work  of  all  kinds  was  the  remarkable  part  of  his 


104       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

character.  With  his  hands  full  of  a  most  multifarious  practice  he 
met  political  duties  of  great  magnitude.  As  a  Senator  and  party 
leader  he  had  burdens  and  responsibilities  under  which,  without 
more,  a  strong  man  might  have  sunk.  But  this  man's  shoulders 
seemed  to  feel  no  weight  that  was  even  inconvenient.  If  Lord 
Brougham  did  half  as  much  labor  in  quantity  and  variety,  he 
deserved  all  the  admiration  he  won  for  versatility  and  patience. 

Mr.  CARPENTER'S  notions  of  professional  ethics  were  pure  and 
high  toned.  He  never  acted  upon  motives  of  lucre  or  malice.  He 
would  take  what  might  be  called  a  bad  case,  because  he  thought 
that  every  man  should  have  a  fair  trial ;  but  he  would  use  no  false 
hood  to  gain  it;  he  was  true  to  the  court  as  well  as  to  the  client. 
He  was  the  least  mercenary  of  all  lawyers;  a  large  proportion  of 
his  business  was  done  for  nothing. 

Outside  of  his  family  he  seldom  spoke  of  his  religious  opinions. 
He  was  not  accustomed  to  give  in  his  experience — never  at  all  to 
me.  He  firmly  believed  in  the  morality  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  in  no  other  system.  If  you  ask  whether  he  practiced  it  per 
fectly,  I  ask  in  return,  Who  has?  Certainly  not  you  or  I.  He  was 
a  gentle  censor  of  our  faults;  let  us  not  be  rigid  with  his.  One 
thing  is  certain,  his  faith  in  his  own  future  was  strong  enough  to 
meet  death  as  calmly  as  he  would  expect  the  visit  of  a  friend. 
Upwards  of  a  year  since  his  physicians  told  him  that  he  would 
certainly  die  in  a  few  months;  and  he  knew  they  were  right;  but 
with  that  inevitable  doom  coming  visibly  nearer  every  day,  he  went 
about  his  business  with  a  spirit  as  cheerful  as  if  he  had  a  long  lease 
of  life  before  him. 

I  think  for  certain  reasons  that  my  personal  loss  is  greater  than 
the  rest  of  you  have  suffered.  But  that  is  a  "  fee  grief  due  to  my 
particular  breast."  It  is  enough  to  say  for  myself,  that  I  did  love 
the  man  in  his  lifetime,  and  do  honor  his  memory,  now  that  he  is 
dead. 


XKMAHKS  OF  MIL  A.  H.  GARLAND.  105 


Remarks  of  Mr.  A.  H.  GARLAND. 

Mr.  CHAIRMAN:  This  is  not  an  ordinary  occasion,  and  it  excites 
in  all  of  us  no  ordinary  feelings,  for  we  have  met  here  to  pay  the 
last  honor  to  one  of  the  remarkable  men  of  this  remarkable  age, 
and  this  remarkable  country.  My  acquaintance  with  Mr.  CAR 
PENTER  began  in  this  chamber  in  December,  1865,  under  circum 
stances  that  make  it  proper  that  I  should  offer  some  tribute  to  his 
memory;  though  feeble,  it  is  sincere  and  heartfelt. 

During  the  previous  month  I  had  filed  in  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  a  petition  to  be  admitted  to  practice  in  the  court 
without  taking  the  oath  which  had  been  prescribed  by  the  act  of 
Congress  of  1862,  known  as  "the  lawyer's  test  oath."  Mr.  Rev- 
erdy  Johnson  had  generously  volunteered  his  services  in  the  case 
to  me,  and  my  old  and  esteemed  friend,  Mr.  Middleton,  whose 
name  I  cannot  mention  without  emotion,  then  clerk  of  that  court, 
recommended  me  to  employ,  also,  Mr.  CARPENTER. 

The  next  day,  some  few  moments  previous  to  the  assembling  of 
the  court,  through  Mr.  Middleton,  I  was  made  acquainted  with 
Mr.  CARPENTER.  Making  known  to  him  the  special  object  of  my 
introduction  to  him,  he  replied,  with  that  frankness  and  quickness 
which  always  characterized  him,  that  he  had  seen  and  examined 
the  petition  as  published  in  the  newspapers,  that  he  agreed  with  the 
conclusions  of  the  petition,  and  thought  its  prayer  should  be  granted ; 
but  that  neither  I  nor  my  friends  had  money  enough  to  employ  him, 
though  if  I  would  accept  his  services  he  would  render  them  cheer 
fully. 

Mr.  CARPENTER  appeared  in  the  case,  made  a  clear,  bright,  and 
cogent  presentation  of  it,  standing  at  about  the  very  point  in  this 
room  where  the  friend  who  first  spoke  of  him  to-day  stood.  He 
made  such  an  argument  a?  added  much  to  his  already  growing  fame 


106   LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

in  that  forum  and  put  him  forthwith  among  the  leaders  of  this  bar, 
which  position,  we  all  know,  he  occupied  till  the  time  of  his  death. 
From  that  time  until  the  sad  occurrence  we  now  mourn,  our  ac 
quaintance  was  and  continued  to  be  a  warm  and  sincere  friendship. 

Often  in  the  troublous  times  through  which  the  State  where  I 
live  passed,  did  I  avail  myself  of  his  generous  and  kind  counsel 
and  wise  advice,  which  he  never  withheld  and  which  he  never  gave 
grudgingly.  To  me  and  to  the  people  of  Arkansas  he  was  a  friend 
indeed,  and  in  need,  and  with  me  and  with  them  his  memory  will 
ever  live  and  grow  brighter  as  it  lives. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  speak  of  Mr.  CARPENTER'S  public  services  and 
life.  They  are  written  in  the  records  of  the  highest  tribunals  of 
the  land;  they  are  entered  in  the  journals  of  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States ;  they  are  imprinted  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and 
they  are  the  property  of  the  country.  His  life  was  another  splendid 
example  to  the  young  men  of  the  nation,  full  of  cheerful  lessons 
and  stimulants  to  their  aspirations  and  their  hopes.  Coming  from 
the  very  foundation  of  society,  without  any  family  record,  without 
any  previous  heraldry,  with  no  ancestral  prestige,  he  worked  his 
way  up  to  become  admired  in  the  nation  amongst  its  legists,  publi 
cists,  and  statesmen. 

Always  genial,  kind,  and  generous,  even  during  the  two  past 
years  when  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  others  of  us  here  who  served 
with  him  in  the  Senate  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  knew,  and 
when  he  himself  knew,  that  death  had  already  thrown  its  shadow 
across  his  path,  he  labored  on,  and  he  labored  in  genuine  good 
humor,  not  morosely.  If  in  the  course  of  his  tife  he  had  to  send 
forth  arrows,  like  the  Tartars,  his  name  was  upon  them,  that  the 
arm  that  shot  them  might  be  known,  but  they  were  not  dipped  in 
poison,  they  were  not  dipped  in  malice. 

It  is  said  that  in  the  final  analysis  of  all  things  nothing  remains 
but  character.  In  this  instance  what  a  rich  and  precious  legacy 


REMARKS  OF  J/A'.  ./.   M.    WILSON.  107 

this  is  to  his  family  and  his  country  I  And  as  this  life  is  but  u 
trust  to  be  executed  and  accounted  for,  those  here  who  know  how 
well  he  performed  his  trust  will  hope  that  the  account  of  it  which 
he  is  ready  to  render  may  secure  him  a  home  in  another  life  of 
brightness  and  of  beauty,  where  he  may  dwell  in  one  of  those  many 
mansions  that  are  in  Our  Father's  house. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  not  had  time,  and  from  indisposition  I 
have  not  been  able,  to  prepare  my  thoughts  as  I  should  like 
to  have  delivered  them;  but  at  another  time  and  in  another  place 
I  will  take  an  opportunity  to  pay,  as  far  as  I  am  able,  a  fitting 
tribute  to  one  whom  I  loved  in  his  lifetime,  and  whose  memory 
I  now  cherish  in  the  language  of  the  resolutions,  which  I  heartily 
second. 


Remarks  of  Mr.  J.  M.  WILSON. 

Mr.  CHAIRMAN:  On  the  18th  of  February,  1876,  the  members 
of  the  bar  of  the  Supreme  Court  met  in  this  room  to  pay  respect  to 
the  memory  of  Reverdy  Johnson,  and  he  whose  death  we  have 
to-day  met  to  deplore,  MATTHEW  HALE  CARPENTER,  presided  as 
chairman  of  that  meeting. 

In  his  address  on  taking  the  chair,  in  speaking  of  the  qualities 
of  Reverdy  Johnson  as  a  lawyer,  he  unconsciously  described  himself 
in  these  words,  which  I  will  read  from  the  report  of  that  meeting : 

And  considering  the  extent  and  variety  of  his  practice  ;  bis  natural  resources 
and  professional  attainments;  his  thorough  self-possession  and  steadiness  of 
nerve,  when  the  skill  of  an  opponent  unexpectedly  brought  on  the  crisis  of  a 
great  trial — an  opportunity  for  feeble  men  to  lose  first  themselves  and  then 
their  cause;  his  fidelity  to  the  oath  which  was  anciently  administered  to  all 
the  lawyers  of  England — to  present  nothing  false,  but  to  make  war  for  their 
clients;  the  audacity  of  his  valor  when  the  fate  of  his  client  was  trembling 
in  the  balance — he  believing  his  client  to  bo  right,  while  every  one  else  be 
lieved  him  to  be  wrong;  remembering  all  these  traits,  we  must  rank  him  with 
the  greatest  lawyers  of  this  or  any  other  country. 


108       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

A  little  further  on  he  gave  another  description,  which  I  beg  to 
read: 

His  outward  form  proclaimed  the  man.  His  compact,  firm-knit  frame,  liis 
heavy  shoulders,  his  round  head,  his  striking  face,  bearing  the  furrows  of 
many  sharp  professional  and  political  conflicts,  but  from  which  there  still 
shone  his  gentle  kindly  nature,  all  indicated  a  man  of  genial  nature,  yet  reso 
lute  of  purpose — a  man  easy  to  court,  but  dangerous  in  conflict. 

Excepting  that  time  had  plowed  no  "furrows,"  how  strikingly 
accurate  a  description,  in  many  respects,  are  these  utterances  of  him 
who  uttered  them,  as  he  was  a  few  months  ago,  before  disease  had 
made  him  its  prey.  He  possessed  qualities  of  mind  that  are  rarely 
combined  in  one  man. 

He  was  humorous,  witty,  quick  in  repartee,  brilliant  as  an  orator, 
a  rapid  and  accurate  thinker,  a  strong  reasoner. 

While  he  was  endowed  with  brilliancy  and  genius,  he  did  not 
rely  upon  these;  he  was  a  hard  worker.  His  range  of  information 
was  wide;  he  was  conversant  with  legal  precedents;  he  was  thor 
oughly  schooled  in  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  la\v. 

These  powers  and  acquirements  were  always  at  his  command, 
ready  for  use  in  the  most  unexpected  emergencies  of  offensive  or 
defensive  conflict. 

No  man  whom  I  have  ever  known  could  see  more  quickly  the 
strong  or  weak  point  in  a  cause. 

His  was  a  genial  and  kindly  nature. 

He  was  full  of  sympathy,  he  was  generous  to  a  fault,  he  intensely 
hated  a  wrong,  and  the  humbler  the  object  of  the  wrong  the  more 
intensely  he  hated  it. 

He  is  dead.  To  use  his  own  language,  as  applied  to  Mr.  John 
son,  "he  has  passed  from  the  known  to  the  unknown;  from  earth 
to  the  hereafter  of  hope  and  faith,"  but  his  rare  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart  will  remain  as  pleasant  memories  to  those  who  knew  him 
well. 


It  KV  ARKS  OF  MH.  JAMKS  IT.  EMKIIY.  109 


Remarks  of  Mr.  JAMES  H.  EMBRY. 

Mr.  CHAIRMAN:  It  was  my  privilege  to  know  well,  though  not 
intimately,  during  recent  years,  him  whose  loss  we  mourn  to-day. 
Soliciting  his  professional  aid  in  matters  intrusted  to  my  care,  I 
had  the  opportunity  of  witnessing  the  strength  and  vigor  of  his 
mind,  the  grasp  of  his  intellectual  power,  the  fertility  of  his  re 
sources,  and  the  splendor  of  his  genius. 

Every  constitutional  and  legal  question  presented  to  him  was 
penetrated  and  probed  from  circumference  to  center,  until  he 
touched  and  grasped  and  mastered  the  great  leading  idea  or  princi 
ple  around  which  all  others  revolved. 

His  strong,  compact,  forcible  arguments,  enriched  by  his  learn 
ing,  adorned  by  his  illustrations,  and  touched  by  his  wit,  made  him 
ever  a  welcome  advocate  before  the  courts,  which  he  never  failed 
to  enlighten  and  instruct.  Fortunate  was  his  antagonist,  when 
Mr.  CARPENTER  summoned  his  full  strength  and  energies  and 
poured  the  full  fire  of  his  artillery  against  the  apparently  impreg 
nable  fort  behind  which  that  antagonist  was  concealed,  if  he  failed 
to  dislodge  him. 

In  his  professional  and  public  life  he  consecrated  himself  wholly 
to  the  great  work  before  him.  He  bowed  before  the  altar  of  duty, 
lighted  by  the  torches  of  resolution  and  fidelity,  and  made  his 
physical  strength  a  martyr  to  his  intellectual  energies.  He  cher 
ished  a  sacred  reverence  for  the  Constitution  of  his  country,  and  as 
an  American  Senator  he  guarded  it,  with  sleepless  vigilance,  as  the 
only  pure  fountain,  whose  living  streams  refresh,  invigorate,  and 
sustain  the  national  life.  In  law  he  was  an  artist,  like  Michael 
Angelo,  in  virgin  marble,  "who,  fashioning  the  daintiest  forms  of 
beauty,  handled  his  chisel  and  his  mallet  as  if  he  were  hewing  a 
pyramid/1 


110   LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  only  here  and  there,  at  long  intervals,  amid 
the  epochs  of  national  life,  that  time,  as  it  plants  its  century  monu 
ments,  points  with  pride  and  exultation  to  the  man,  who,  equally 
and  alike,  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  at  the  bar,  and  upon  the  hust 
ings,  leaves  the  enduring  and  indelible  impress  of  his  power  and 
his  greatness  upon  the  generation  with  which  he  lived.  And  the 
historian  who  shall  write  the  record  of  these  times  will  not  fail  to 
accord  Mr.  CARPENTER  an  eminent  and  conspicuous  place  among 
the  nation's  foremost  statesmen,  lawyers,  and  orators. 

Just  five  years  ago,  on  the  18th  of  last  month,  Mr.  CARPENTER 
presided  in  this  chamber,  at  a  meeting  of  the  members  of  this  bar, 
to  pay  respect  to  the  memory  of  one  who  was  the  recognized  leader 
of  the  American  bar,  the  late  Reverdy-  Johnson.  He  paid  a  beau 
tiful  tribute  to  the  abilities  and  services  of  Mr.  Johnson,  and  the 
following  utterance  fitly  applies  to  himself: 

Nature  sots  indelible  marks  upon  the  productions  of  which  she  is  the  proud 
est.  His  outward  form  proclaimed  the  man.  His  compact,  firm-knit  frame, 
his  heavy  shoulders,  his  round  head,  his  striking  face,  bearing  the  farrows 
of  many  sharp  professional  and  political  conflicts,  but  from  which  there  still 
shone  his  gentle,  kindly  nature — all  indicated  a  man  of  genial  nature,  yet  reso 
lute  of  purpose ;  a  man  easy  to  court,  but  dangerous  in  conflict. 

And  here,  too,  Mr.  Chairman,  he  left  behind  him  the  record  of 
his  trust  and  faith  in  the  justice  of  God,  as  firm  and  unshaken  as 
that  of  St.  Paul  or  Martin  Luther.  Speaking  of  Mr.  Johnson's 
sudden  death,  he  said : 

Without  pain,  without  death-bed  parting  from  those  he  loved  (more  painful 
than  death  itself),  possessing  all  his  faculties  in  full  vigor,  rich  in  honors  and 
glorious  with  praise,  he  passed  in  an  instant  from  the  known  to  the  unknown, 
from  earth  to  the  hereafter  of  hope  and  faith.  And  if  it  was  ordered  that  the 
scone  of  his  mortal  life  must  end  that  moment,  who  can  say  that  the  manner 
of  its  close  was  not  also  ordered,  in  mercy,  by  that  God  who  doeth  ALL  things 
well  f 

But  above  and  beyond  all  these  high  qualities,  these  mental  en 
dowments  and  acquirements,  Mr.  CARPENTER,  in  that  higher  sphere 
of  life,  as  man  and  citizen,  was  pre-eminent.  I  sincerely  believe, 


ItEMAKKS  Or  MR.  JAMKS  If.   KM  BUY.  1  1  1 

sir,  that  he  was  an  honest  man,  in  the  highest  and  truest  meaning 
of  those  words.  I  sincerely  believe,  sir,  that  in  all  his  intercourse 
with  his  fcllow-racn  he  purposely  wronged  no  man,  but  that  he 
walked  ever  by  the  light  of  the  Golden  Rule. 

Mr.  Chairman,  when  his  remains  shall  lx?  borne  from  this  District, 
the  theater  of  his  sternest  struggles  and  his  proudest  triumphs — 
lx>rne  in  the  nation's  keeping  by  loving  hands  and  loyal  hearts  to 
his  distant  home  in  the  city  by  the  lake — Wisconsin  will  hold 
within  all  her  wide  lx>rders  the  ashes  of  no  child  who  has  labored 
more  faithfully  for  her  interests,  or  added  more  of  honor  and  re 
nown  to  her  own  high  name. 

May  all  the  dwellers  within  her  Iwrders  to-day,  and  succeeding 
generations,  keep  lighted  around  the  spot  where  he  shall  sleep  the 
vigils  of  their  aifection  and  their  love,  with  the  same  constancy  and 
fidelity  with  which  he  gave  the  best  years  of  a  noble  manhood  to 
her  service,  falling  at  last,  like  a  mailed  warrior,  by  her  side,  "rich 
in  honors  and  glorious  with  praise." 

The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously;  and  thereupon,  on 
motion  of  Mr.  Conkling,  the  meeting  adjourned. 


SUPREME  COURT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
FRIDAY,  MARCH  11,  1881. 

Present : 

Tlio  Honorable  MORRISON  R.  WAITE,  Chief  Jmtice; 
SAMUEL  F.  MILLER, 
STEPHEN  J.  FIELD, 
JOSEPH  P.  BRADLEY, 
JOHN  M.  HARLAN, 
WILLIAM  B.  WOODS, 

Associate  Justices. 

Mr.  Attorney-General  MacVeagh  presented  the  resolutions  of  the 
bar  on  the  death  of  Hon.  M.  H.  CARPENTER,  which  were  read  and 

ordered  to  be  filed. 

113 
8  c 


ADDENDA. 


We  subjoin  the  address  of  Judge  MacArthur  before  the  Wiscon 
sin  Association  at  Washington,  as  it  is  the  only  account  which  lias 
been  given  by  an  eye-witness  of  the  last  moments  of  Senator  CAR 
PENTER.  Judge  Mac-Arthur  reported  a  series  of  resolutions,  and 
spoke  as  follows: 

Mr.  CHAIRMAN:  The  resolutions  have  been  prepared  in  brief 
terms  to  express  the  profound  sorrow  and  deep  sympathy  which 
must  move  the  bosom  of  every  citizen  of  Wisconsin  on  the  death 
of  Senator  CARPENTER.  They  were  expressed  in  brief  terms,  as 
his  life-work  was  his  best  eulogy  and  his  brilliant  career  his  only 
fitting  panegyric.  His  services  were  bequeathed  to  the  country, 
and  his  memory  will  be  cherished  as  long  as  patriotism  prevails 
and  statesmanship  is  honored. 

The  death  of  a  great  man  is  nearly  always  sudden,  unexpected, 
and  appalling.  He  lives  so  much  in  the  public  eye,  and  is  inter 
woven  so  much  with  the  public  life,  that  what  belongs  to  the  indi 
vidual  is  overlooked  in  the  common  interest  and  admiration,  and 
when  his  death  occurs  it  comes  upon  us  like  a  tropical  sunset- 
sudden,  instantaneous,  involving  us  in  darkness  and  despair.  This 
was  in  some  measure  true  in  regard  to  the  demise  of  Senator  CAR 
PENTER.  Those  who  were  intimate  with  him  had  for  many  months 
observed  a  marked  change  in  his  appearance;  his  magnificent  per 
son  was  losing  its  fullness  of  habit ;  the  luster  of  his  merry  eye,  the 
cadence  of  his  ringing  laugh,  were  impaired  and  overcast  with  the 

coming  shadow.     Fits  of  indisposition  were  alternated  with  periods 

115 


116       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

of  apparently  reluming  health,  and  hope  and  friendship  recovered 
confidence  and  abandoned  all  fears  for  his  safety. 

On  the  afternoon  of  Wednesday  last  I  visited  at  his  residence  and 
stood  by  his  bedside,  where  he  was  then  asleep.  I  saw  a  dreadful 
change  had  happened ;  the  end  was  written  upon  his  face,  and  then, 
for  the  first  time,  I  gave  up  all  hope.  Upon  calling  later  in  the 
evening,  I  found  his  respiration  painful  and  laborious,  and  it  seemed 
as  if  his  life  were  struggling  to  retain  its  dominion  in  every  breath. 
A  torpor  had  seized  upon  his  conciousness,  but  his  attention  could 
be  roused  to  particular  persons  or  objects.  Placing  my  hand  upon 
his  shoulders  and  gently  shaking  him,  I  asked  him  if  he  knew  me. 
After  a  second  he  replied,  "It  is  the  judge";  and,  after  another 
short  pause,  he  added,  "Mrs.  Carpenter  and  I  have  been  talking  of 
coming  over  to  see  you";  and  then,  as  if  his  old  spirit  of  humor 
and  merriment  had  returned,  he  said,  "Judge,  I  want  to  make  a 
motion";  to  which  I  replied,  that  his  motion  was  granted  without 
argument. 

An  hour  or  two  after  midnight  I  was  again  by  his  bedside.  He 
was  still  weaker  than  before,  and  the  vital  forces  were  yielding 
slowly  and  surely  to  the  impending  catastrophe.  The  last  indica 
tion  of  consciousness  occurred  shortly  before  day-break,  when  he 
slowly  turned  his  head  toward  Mrs.  Carpenter  and  his  daughter. 
It  was  his  last  effort  at  recognition,  and  he  then  closed  his  eyes, 
never  again  to  behold  his  loved  ones  on  earth.  At  this  time  there 
were  present  his  wife,  his  daughter  and  son.  Dr.  Fox,  who  had 
traveled  night  and  day  from  Milwaukee,  and  who  supplemented 
science  with  friendship  and  love,  was  also  present,  as  was  the  Hon. 
Charles  G.  Williams.  As  the  members  of  his  own  family  sat 
by  the  death-bed  of  him  they  loved  so  dearly,  it  seemed  to  me 
the  most  beautiful,  the  most  sad  and  touching  tableau  I  had  ever 
witnessed.  At  length  daylight  broke  through  the  crevices  of  the 
curtains,  the  sun  came  forth  in  unclouded  splendor,  and  the  atmos- 


JIHHtESS  OF  JUDtlK  MACARTHVK.  1  1  7 

phere  was  balmy  its  in  the  early  days  of  spring.  It  was  full  of  the 
elixir  of  life,  but  brought  no  relief  to  our  friend.  Lending  Mrs. 
Carpenter  to  the  window,  I  asked  her  if  she  could  remember  the 
dying  expressions  of  the  great  Mirabeau,  whom  her  husband  so 
much  resembled  in  his  powers  of  persuasion.  "Open  the  windows," 
he  exclaimed.  "Throw  aside  the  curtains  and  let  the  sunshine  fill 
the  apartment,  and  bathe  me  in  its  beams,  and  let  the  incense  of  the 
garden  reach  my  senses,  for  I  would  die  amidst  the  perfume  of  its 
flowers."  But  how  different  is  this  scene  in  one  respect,  for  the 
great  Frenchman,  though  ho  feared  not  death,  believed  it  to  be  an 
eternal  sleep.  But  your  gifted  husband,  although  so  largely  ab 
sorbed  in  the  activities  of  life,  and  although  taking  such  large  share 
in  public  business,  had  a  strong  and  fruitful  religious  vein  in  his 
nature,  and  believed  that  death,  instead  of  being  our  final  destiny, 
was  but  the  entrance  to  a  higher  and  truer  life. 

At  about  nine  o'clock  Dr.  Fox  called  me  suddenly  to  the  bed 
side.  The  breathing  had  almost  ceased,  the  quick  respiration  had 
entirely  gone,  the  breath  came  at  long  intervals,  and  the  attendant 
clergyman  began  reading  the  solemn  service  of  the  church  for  the 
dying.  The  physician  kept  his  hand  upon  the  heart  to  mark  the 
ebbing  tide  of  life;  I  looked  at  the  doctor  after  each  spasm,  and 
the  reply  was,  "Not  yet."  At  last  came  a  .pause,  long  and  endless; 
the  physician  withdrew  his  hand,  and  CARPENTER  was  dead. 

I  give  these  particulars  that  you  might  have  them  from  an  eye 
witness,  and  may  be  able  to  appreciate  the  last  moments  of  one  who 
was  your  friend  and  our  friend.  Indeed,  I  do  not  know  of  a  human 
being  who  ever  knew  Senator  CARPENTER  that  will  not  feel  that 
they  have  lost  a  friend  and  almost  a  member  of  their  own  house 
hold. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  dwell  at  present  upon  what,  constituted 
the  mental  power  and  greatness  of  this  remarkable  man.  It  has 
been  my  good  fortune  to  have  known,  on  terms  of  personal  inti- 


118       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  MATTHEW  H.  CARPENTER. 

macy,  many  of  the  men  who  have  become  historic  in  our  country. 
Among  them  Rufus  Choate,  Daniel  Webster,  Judge  Curtis, 'and 
many  others  of  the  same  generation  and  almost  equal  in  reputation. 
Without  entering  upon  the  questionable  field  of  personal  compari 
son,  I  think  I  am  justified  in  saying  that  CARPENTER  would  have 
been  distinguished  even  among  the  distinguished.  His  quickness 
of  perception  was  amazing,  but  he  had  one  quality  in  a  higher  degree 
than  I  have  ever  observed  in  any  one  that  I  have  known,  and  that 
was  his  wonderful  power  of  rallying  all  his  mental  faculties  and  all 
his  acquirements  and  knowledge  instantaneously,  upon  sudden  emer 
gencies,  and  accomplishing  off-hand  work  that  would  have  required 
study  and  reflection  in  any  other  man.  It  was  this  power  which 
enabled  him  at  once  to  seize  upon  the  sensitive  point  of  a  contro 
versy,  and  to  make  that  which  was  complicated  and  difficult  clear 
and  obvious  to  the  comprehension  of  those  he  addressed  or  wished 
to  persuade.  He  had  another  peculiarity,  less  known  to  the  public, 
but  which  constituted  one  of  the  greatest  elements  in  his  success  as 
a  lawyer,  and  that  was  his  skill  in  cross-examination  of  witnesses. 
Lord  Brougham's  cross-examination  of  the  Italian  witness  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  upon  the  trial  of  Queen  Caroline,  has  always  been 
regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  masterpieces  in  the  history  of  En 
glish  state  trials.  But  I  am  quite  sure  that  I  have  witnessed  an 
instance  of  the  same  kind,  upon  the  Ottman  trial,  in  this  District, 
for  the  Treasury  robbery,  in  which  for  two  days  Senator  CARPEN 
TER  conducted  the  cross-examination  of  an  accomplice  used  as  a 
witness  by  the  government.  The  wonderful  fertility  of  interroga 
tion  that  was  baffled  by  no  evasion,  and  the  patience  with  which  he 
listened  to  tedious  details  and  utilized  them  by  dexterous  turns  of 
expression  and  quick  and  unexpected  questions,  presented  his  won 
derful  skill  and  resources  in  a  way  which  I  have  never  seen  ap 
proached.  In  two  other  instances  I  have  known  him,  by  the  mere 
force  of  probing  the  conscience  and  throwing  the  witnesses  off  their 


A1WHKSS  OF  JUIHIK  MACAKTHUR.  119 

guard,  to  trace  the  crimes  of  forgery  and  |>erjury  to  the  witnesses 
themselves,  in  so  clear  a  manner  as  to  end  the  prosecution  and  save 
his  clients. 

I  need  not  refer  to  his  brilliant  career  in  the  Senate;  that  much 
is  recorded  and  history  will  preserve  it.  Although  engaged  as 
extensively  as  any  of  his  brother  Senators  in  the  debates  and  dis 
cussions  of  that  high  assembly,  no  harshness  was  mingled  with  his 
eloquence,  nor  has  he  left  the  sting  of  bitter  invective  to  rankle  in 
a  single  bosom.  His  generous  nature  and  liberal  hand  made  all 
who  knew  him,  friends,  and  all  who  are  intimate  with  him,  lovers. 

But,  as  I  have  already  observed,  I  do  not  design  to  speak  of  his 
intellectual  qualities  or  to  enlarge  upon  his  professional  career. 
That  duty  will  be  performed  by  others,  on  an  occasion  more  suited 
to  the  subject  than  the  present.  We  have  come  together  to  express 
our  love;  we  stand  by  his  grave  and  drop  the  tear  of  sensibility; 
the  eloquent  lip  is  sealed  in  eternal  silence.  The  dull,  cold  ear  of 
Death  vibrates  not  to  our  affectionate  solicitude.  With  reverent 
care  and  with  tears  and  prayers  we  resign  him  to  the  merciful 
Father  of  us  all. 


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